Blue origin ‘Responding to an issue’ after the interrupt system is activated on a failed start

CNN
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A Blue Origin rocket experienced a “booster failure” during the rocket’s sudden launch from New Shepard, West Texas, on Monday morning, causing the ejection mechanism that allows the capsule to parachute back to Earth.

“This was a payload mission with no astronauts. The capsule escape mechanism works as planned He tweeted. If it fails, launch soon. In the follow-up Twitter Late Monday, the company said the incident was the result of a “reinforcement failure” but said the capsule’s escape mechanism on the ill-fated flight “performed as planned.” On Monday afternoon, the company confirmed that the rocket booster had landed back on Earth, it wrote in another Twitter, “The motivation hit the ground running. No injuries reported; All workers are held accountable.

In a statement to CNN Business on Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was overseeing the investigation into the “accident” and said there were no injuries or property damage.

The FAA statement said: “The unusual occurrence triggered the capsule’s escape mechanism.” “The capsule landed safely and the booster touched down at the designated crash site.”

“Before the new Shepard vehicle can be returned to flight, the FAA will determine whether any system, process or procedure involved in the accident compromised public safety,” the agency added. “This is standard practice for all misdiagnoses.”

The live stream of the launch will show the unmanned crew capsule from the rocket getting incredibly close to Max Q, or the moment the vehicle is engulfed by the atmosphere during the flight. The capsule on top of the ship then parachuted back to Earth.

“It looks like we had an unusual problem with today’s flight, it was unplanned and we don’t have any details yet, but our crew capsule successfully escaped,” Blue Origin employee Erica Wagner said during the live broadcast. launch.

This was the first payload flight for New Shepard since August 2021, and the ninth flight for this unique vehicle, at Blue Origin.

The mission, designated NS-23, was flying 36 payloads, two of which were flown on the outside of the booster. Blue Origin said that 18 of the payloads on the plane were funded by NASA. Among the loads carried on the NS-23 mission Nine built by students in elementary, middle and high schools, according to a tweet from Blue Origin. Other science projects are included Experiments on how paraffin and wax are created in space to create clean rocket engine propellants, and an artificial intelligence experiment aimed at capturing suborbital data from multiple sensors and analyzing it in real time. According to the company’s statement about the mission, which was released before the launch, two of the payloads were prepared to fly on the outer part of the New Shepard booster.

The private space company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos tweeted at 10:40 a.m.: “This morning we are responding to an issue at our Launch Site One location in West Texas.” “More information to come as it becomes available,” the tweet continued.

Blue Source did not immediately respond to CNN Business’ request for additional comment Monday morning.