CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A rocket crashed back to Earth shortly after liftoff Monday in the first launch accident for Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, but the capsule carrying experiments managed to parachute to safety.
No one was
aboard the Blue Origin flight, which used the same kind of rocket as the one
that sends paying customers to the edge of space. The rockets are now grounded
pending the outcome of an investigation, the Federal Aviation Administration
said.
The New
Shepard rocket was barely a minute into its flight from West Texas when bright
yellow flames shot out from around the single engine at the bottom. The
capsule’s emergency launch abort system immediately kicked in, lifting the
craft off the top. Several minutes later, the capsule parachuted onto the remote
desert floor.
The rocket
came crashing down, with no injuries or damage reported, said the FAA, which is
in charge of public safety during commercial space launches and landings.
Blue
Origin’s launch commentary went silent when the capsule catapulted off the
rocket Monday morning, eventually announcing: “It appears we’ve experienced an
anomaly with today’s flight. This wasn’t planned.”
“Booster
failure on today’s uncrewed flight. Escape system performed as designed,” the
Kent, Washington-based company tweeted close to an hour later.
The mishap
occurred as the rocket was traveling nearly 700 mph (1,126 kph) at an altitude
of about 28,000 feet (8,500 meters). There was no video shown of the rocket —
only the capsule — after the failure. It happened around the point the rocket
is under the maximum amount of pressure, called max-q.
The rocket
usually lands upright on the desert floor and then is recycled for future
flights.
The webcast
showed the capsule reaching a maximum altitude of more than 37,000 feet (11,300
meters). Thirty-six experiments were on board to be exposed to a few minutes of
weightlessness. Half were sponsored by NASA, mostly from students.
It was the
23rd flight for the New Shepard program, named after the first American in
space, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the ninth flight for this
particular rocket-capsule pair, which was dedicated to flying experiments.
Blue
Origin’s most recent flight with paying customers was just last month; the
ticket price hasn’t been released. Bezos was on the first New Shepard crew last
year. Altogether, Blue Origin has carried 31 people on 10-minute flights, including
actor William Shatner.
The rocket
should have launched nearly two weeks ago, but was grounded until Monday by bad
weather.
The
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