Blue Origin Shepard Launch Aborts Uncrewed Mission Following an Anomaly

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket encountered an unexpected anomaly less than two minutes after its take-off.

According to the reports, the problem occurred on Monday, Sept. 12. Since it's an uncrewed flight test, no people are aboard the spacecraft.

Blue Origin Rocket Shoots Away

On the morning of Sept. 12, the Blue Origin rocket unexpectedly suffered from a shocking issue as it flew to nearly 9,000 meters.

According to The Washington Post, the rocket's emergency abort system suddenly zoomed during the flight. The spacecraft had separated from the booster when it happened.

The test was part of the science experiment of the company to see if the suborbital exploration would succeed this time. The rocket was carrying payloads before it pulled away from the capsule.

In a YouTube webcast about the New Shepard 23 Cargo launch, Blue Origin has not mentioned the reason behind the problem. However, it appeared that the termination system of the rocket was turned on.

By the time it went through max Q, there was a lot of pressure that was contained during the lift-off. When it has already reached the suborbital trajectory, that's the time when the rocket started to burn.

At the same time, the emergency abort system fired as it continued to ascend into space.

Safety is Always the Priority

According to Erika Wagner, the company's senior director for Emerging Space Markets, Blue Origin is always thinking of safety as their "highest" priority. This is the exact reason why the aerospace manufacturer is building "redundancy into the system."

This is the ninth time that the rocket has launched along with the booster, according to Ars Technica.

If there are visitors aboard the spacecraft, they might feel the extreme gravity during the disintegration of the rocket and booster.

"It appears we've experienced an anomaly with today's flight. This was unplanned and we don't have any details yet. But our crew capsule was able to escape successfully," Wagner said during the live broadcast.

The flight was the fourth time for the New Shepard in 2022. In the future, we expect that Blue Origin will conduct more tests as it continues its venture into space.

We could recall that in 2015, Booster 1, the first booster of the company, lost its way during a flight. A year later, Booster 2 surpassed the test on its launch escape system for its fight take-off.

The recently-launched rocket was the Booster 3, which was created in 2017. Meanwhile, the Booster 4 can only be used to transport humans to space.

It might take some time before the third booster becomes ready to carry passengers onboard. Several modifications have to be made before it comes suited for tourism.

Blue Origin vs. SpaceX

The feud between SpaceX and Blue Origin has been running for some years. It seems that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have not yet settled the competition with one another.

Last year, the Bezos-owned firm launched the "Project Jarvis'' program to match SpaceX. A month later, a former lead engineer from Blue Origin stepped down from her position so she could go to the rival company.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry