The booster returned autonomously to a landing pad just north of its launch site, while the capsule freefalls back to Earth with three giant parachutes, and finally a thruster, for a gentle landing in the desert.īlue Origin has remained relatively coy about what comes next. The spacecraft peaks at about 65 miles altitude (106 kilometers), allowing the crew members to admire the curvature of the planet, and the inky black of the rest of the universe. The capsule separated from its booster, and when it got high enough, the astronauts unbuckled and experienced weightlessness for three to four minutes. Notably absent from the flight is the still anonymous winner of a $28 million auction for a seat, who had "scheduling conflicts" and will take part in a future flight.ĭaemen's father, the CEO of a private equity firm, was a runner-up in the bidding, allowing his teenage son to become the company's first paying customer.Īfter lift-off, New Shepard careened towards space at speeds exceeding 2,300 mph (3700 kph) using a liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen engine whose only byproduct is water vapor. "Today is just the first of many flights to come on New Shepard," Blue Origin's sale director Ariane Cornell said in a livestream, adding ticket sales were now open. Lift-off was slightly delayed and came at 1312 GMT from a remote facility in the west Texas desert called Launch Site One, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the nearest town, Van Horn. New Shepard has flown 15 uncrewed flights to put it through its paces and test safety mechanisms, like firing the capsule away from the launchpad if the rocket explodes, or landing it with one less parachute. Today, the company is developing a heavy-lift orbital rocket called New Glenn and also a Moon lander it is hoping to contract to NASA. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson made the voyage on July 11, narrowly beating the Amazon magnate in their battle of the billionaires.īut Blue Origin's sights are set higher: both in the altitude to which its reusable New Shepard craft will ascend compared to Virgin's spaceplane, but also in its ambitions.īezos, 57, founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the goal of one day building floating space colonies with artificial gravity where millions of people will work and live. "It's dark up here," said barrier-breaking female aviator Wally Funk, one of the four crew along with Bezos, his brother and 18-year-old Dutchman Oliver Daemen, who will become the youngest astronaut. The company's headquarters is in Kent, Washington.Blue Origin's first crewed mission, an 11-minute hop from west Texas to beyond the Karman line and back again, coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the first Moon landing. Altogether, Blue Origin has carried 31 people to the edge of space. Bezos was on the first New Shepard crew last summer. Its most recent passenger flight was just last month. The same kind of rocket and capsule have been used to carry paying passengers on 10-minute rides to the edge of space. It was the 23rd flight for the New Shepard program, named after the first American in space, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard. Escape system performed as designed," the company tweeted later. "Booster failure on today's uncrewed flight. Thirty-six experiments were on board, half sponsored by NASA. Launch commentator Erika Wagner said the capsule managed to escape successfully, with the webcast showing it reaching a maximum altitude of more than 37,000 feet (11,300 meters). The rocket usually lands upright on the desert floor and then is recycled for future flights clearly, that did not happen this time. There was no video shown of the rocket - only the capsule - after the failure occurred. 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). Several minutes later, the capsule parachuted onto the remote desert floor.īlue Origin's launch commentary went silent when the capsule catapulted off the rocket, later announcing: "It appears we've experienced an anomaly with today's flight. The capsule's launch abort system immediately kicked in, lifting the craft off the top. The Blue Origin rocket veered off course over West Texas about a minute after liftoff. No one was aboard, only science experiments. Jeff Bezos' rocket company suffered its first launch failure Monday.
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