- Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is preparing to launch a New Shepard rocket for the first time in more than a year.
- “We are targeting a launch window of December 18 for the next New Shepard payload mission,” Blue Origin said.
- The mission will mark the suborbital rocket’s return to flight, after a hiatus of more than 14 months due to a mid-launch failure during a cargo mission in September 2022.
A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket carrying a crew of six, including Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of the first American in space Alan Shepard, after whom the spacecraft is named, lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas, US, December 11, 2021.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is preparing to launch its New Shepard rocket for the first time in more than a year, the company said Tuesday.
“We are targeting a launch window of December 18 for the next New Shepard payload mission.” Blue original He said in Social media postsAfter a brief period Bloomberg reported Target date.
The launch of New Shepard, titled NS-24, will be a cargo mission carrying research and scientific payloads. The mission will mark the suborbital rocket’s return to flight, after a hiatus of more than 14 months due to a mid-launch failure during a cargo mission in September 2022.
The Federal Aviation Administration closed its investigation into the failed NS-23 mission earlier this year. The agency asked Blue Origin to take corrective actions “to improve structural performance during operation as well as regulatory changes” at the company.
The moment an anomaly occurred during the New Shepard NS-23 cargo mission, in which the booster motor failed.
Blue original
The New Shepard rocket launches from Blue Origin’s private facility in West Texas, carrying people and payloads more than 100 kilometers, or more than 340,000 feet, for a few minutes of weightlessness. The capsule flies autonomously, without a human pilot, and floats with the help of a set of parachutes to land in the Texas desert. The New Shepard rocket booster can be reused, returning to land on a concrete pad near the launch site.
So far, Blue Origin has transported 31 people across the edge of space with New Shepard.
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