A Blue Origin capsule took off from Texas this Tuesday, a success that marks the return to space of the North American company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, more than a year after an accident.
Ten minutes after takeoff, the NS-24 mission capsule – without passengers but carrying scientific equipment – landed gently in the western American desert, a live video broadcast showed.
This return to space should allow the resumption of Blue Origin’s space tourism activities, which has already taken 31 “affluent curious people” on 10-minute tourist trips, including Jeff Bezos himself.
“Demand for New Shepard flights continues to grow and we hope to increase our flight frequency in 2024,” said company vice president Phil Joyce.
The New Shepard rocket lifted off successfully in West Texas at 4:42 PM (Lisbon time).
To take off #NS24 pic.twitter.com/85wTik0CET
– Blue Origin (@blueorigin) December 19, 2023
The start, initially scheduled for Monday, was postponed until the next day “due to a problem in the ground systems”, Blue Origin had explained on the social network X.
There were no people on board, but there was equipment to conduct scientific experiments during the few moments of microgravity: the capsule flew up to 107 kilometers above Earth, beyond the border with space (100 kilometers).
One of the experiments was intended to better understand how water and gas move in a weightless environment.
An accident that occurred in September 2022 resulted in the fall of the rocket’s propulsion module. It was not carrying passengers at the time.
An investigation was opened by the North American Aviation Regulatory Authority (FAA), which concluded in September that the accident was caused by “an engine operating temperature that was higher than expected.”
The FAA requested changes from the space company before flights could resume. These “corrective actions” include changing the design of certain engine parts.
The regulator confirmed to the France-Presse news agency that it has approved Blue Origin’s amended flying license.
Blue Origin competes in the tourist spaceflight niche with Virgin Galactic, a company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson and operating in New Mexico.
It made its first commercial flight in August, using not a vertical rocket but a huge aircraft carrier, which then launches a spacecraft.
Hours after Blue Origin’s flight, Virgin Galactic announced that the launch window for its next mission, with four passengers, will open on January 26.
Source: DN
