{"id":460313,"date":"2022-09-13T05:59:39","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T03:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=460313"},"modified":"2022-09-13T07:23:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T05:23:28","slug":"blue-origin-rocket-suffers-first-major-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/460313-blue-origin-rocket-suffers-first-major-failure.html","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin rocket suffers first major failure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin LLC aborted a launch of its suborbital New Shepard rocket shortly after takeoff in West Texas, the first major failure for Jeff Bezos\u2019 company since transitioning to routine commercial flights.<\/p>\n<p>No people were on board for Monday\u2019s flight, which was carrying a host of payloads, though a similar version of the same vehicle is used to regularly take paying customers to the edge of space and back.<\/p>\n<p>The US Federal Aviation Administration said it would probe the incident.<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-social-embedded\" data-social-media-type=\"twitter\" data-original-url=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/blueorigin\/statuses\/1569341226838794240\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We\u2019re responding to an issue this morning at our Launch Site One location in West Texas. This was a payload mission with no astronauts on board. The capsule escape system functioned as designed. More information to come as it is available.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Blue Origin (@blueorigin)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/blueorigin\/status\/1569341226838794240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Details of the failure haven\u2019t been disclosed. Just over a minute after takeoff, the New Shepard rocket appeared to suffer an engine problem and veer off course, prompting the emergency abort system to kick in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis wasn\u2019t planned, and we don\u2019t have any details yet,\u201d Erika Wagner, senior director of emerging space markets, said during Blue Origin\u2019s livestream of the launch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut our crew capsule was able to escape successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the failure occurred, the capsule on top of the rocket, used to carry payloads, ignited its thrusters and quickly separated from the rocket.<\/p>\n<p>The capsule landed safely under parachutes. A similar abort technique would be used to save passengers in case people were flying on board the rocket during a failing launch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can see how our backup safety systems kicked in today to keep our payload safe during an off-nominal situation,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cSafety is our highest value at Blue Origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin ended the launch livestream after the capsule touched down in the desert.<\/p>\n<p>A Blue Origin representative said to stay tuned to Twitter for updates.<\/p>\n<p>This was the ninth planned flight of this particular New Shepard booster.<\/p>\n<p>The New Shepard is a fully reusable vehicle, and the booster is designed to land upright following a successful launch to space.<\/p>\n<p>The New Shepard rocket has had a nearly perfect flight record up until now, save for one partial failure early in its testing campaign.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">All-Payload Flight<\/h3>\n<p>This was the first all-payload New Shepard flight for Blue Origin since August of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin has started routinely flying passengers on New Shepard since July of 2021, when the company launched Bezos, its founder, to space.<\/p>\n<p>In September of 2021, a group of current and former Blue Origin employees penned a collective essay\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-09-30\/blue-origin-defends-culture-after-ex-worker-criticizes-workplace\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accusing the company of a toxic work environment<\/a><\/strong>, as well as alleging safety issues.<\/p>\n<p>In December, the FAA\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-12-10\/jeff-bezos-s-blue-origin-cleared-of-safety-allegations-by-faa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cleared Blue Origin<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0after conducting a review of the company\u2019s safety culture.<\/p>\n<p>The FAA, which licenses commercial launches, said in a statement Monday that it would oversee the investigation of the New Shepard \u201cmishap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FAA reviews incidents on space flights, but Congress has prevented it from enacting safety regulations beyond protecting uninvolved bystanders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo injuries or public property damage have been reported,\u201d the FAA said, noting the booster landed within a designated \u201chazard\u201d area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore the New Shepard vehicle can return to flight, the FAA will determine whether any system, process or procedure related to the mishap affected public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/456219-building-your-own-model-rocket-in-south-africa.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Building your own model rocket in South Africa<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just over a minute after takeoff, the New Shepard rocket appeared to suffer an engine problem and veer off course, prompting the emergency abort system to kick in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":460315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[38896,75696,4246,50399,77492],"class_list":["post-460313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-blue-origin","tag-federal-aviation-administration-faa","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-new-shepard","tag-rocket-launches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460317,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460313\/revisions\/460317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}