Blue Origin is lastly returning to flight.
On Tuesday the corporate introduced, by way of the social media web site X, that its New Shepard spacecraft would launch no sooner than subsequent Monday.
“We’re concentrating on a launch window that opens on Dec. 18 for our subsequent New Shepard payload mission,” the corporate acknowledged. “#NS24 will carry 33 science and analysis payloads in addition to 38,000 @clubforfuture postcards to area.”
The uncrewed New Shepard 24 check flight will refly the science payloads that have been aboard the New Shepard 23 flight, which skilled an engine nozzle failure at 1 minute and 4 seconds following liftoff in September 2022. The capsule’s emergency escape system carried out as supposed, quickly pulling the spacecraft away from the disintegrating rocket and permitting Blue Origin to get better the payloads flown for NASA and different prospects.
Blue Origin completed its accident evaluation this spring and applied a repair to the issue, together with design modifications to the BE-3 engine combustion chamber. In Might, the corporate mentioned it deliberate to return to flight “quickly.” Then, in September, the Federal Aviation Administration closed its mishap investigation.
The corporate initially focused an uncrewed return-to-flight mission in early October; nevertheless, two sources advised Ars that the extra two-month delay was brought on by a problem with certifying an engine half supposed for flight.
A brand new rocket?
Blue Origin has not specified which rocket and spacecraft will probably be flying subsequent week from its launch web site in West Texas, close to the city of Van Horn. The corporate’s first New Shepard rocket, Booster 1, was misplaced throughout an April 2015 flight. Booster 2 was retired in October 2016 after performing a profitable check of the launch escape system on its fifth and last flight. Booster 3, which was misplaced through the NS-23 mission in September, was the corporate’s oldest operational rocket, making its debut in December 2017.
The corporate has used its latest rocket, Booster 4, solely for human launches on New Shepard. This rocket has some modifications from Booster 3 to qualify it as a human-rated rocket. The corporate has additionally constructed a fifth booster which may be making subsequent Monday’s flight.
Tuesday’s announcement got here amid a tidal wave of modifications in management at Blue Origin this month, with a number of high-profile retirements and the arrival of its new chief government, who has come to the corporate from Amazon, Dave Limp. He changed Bob Smith, who had an uneven tenure as chief of Blue Origin. As Ars reported final month, Limp is probably going evaluating the long-term prospects of New Shepard, which stays removed from breaking even financially.
The corporate might pivot towards its bigger initiatives, together with the New Glenn rocket and lunar lander for the Artemis program, which have a better likelihood of elevating important income. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has funded Blue Origin out of his pocket, offering as a lot as $2 billion a 12 months in working bills.
Nevertheless, given the announcement of New Shepard’s return to flight, it is clear that Blue Origin is not shifting solely away from New Shepard simply but.
