Actor William Shatner talks about his upcoming launch into space.
An overheated rocket engine was responsible for the failure of last year’s Blue Origin launch, resulting in groundings for the past six months.
During the September flight, when the New Shepard rocket went off course just a minute later, the escape system was triggered and the capsule was ejected and parachuted to safety.
“The direct cause of the NS-23’s mishap was a thermostructural failure of the engine nozzle,” the space company said in a news release Friday. “The resulting thrust misalignment properly triggered the crew capsule escape system, which functioned as designed throughout the flight.”
While the capsule and its payloads were safely maneuvered to a safe landing at Pad One, the rocket crashed.
BRANSON’S VIRGIN ORBIT REBOOTS, SHARE ROCKET
In this image from video provided by Blue Origin, the New Shepard rocket lifts off from the company’s west Texas site on September 12, 2022. ((Blue Origin via AP) / AP Newsroom)
The wreck was confined to the designated exclusion zone.
“As part of the crew capsule escape response, the propulsion module commanded the BE-3PM engine to shut down and followed an unpowered trajectory to impact within the defined flight safety analysis prediction, resulting in no danger to human life or property,” Blue Origin explained .
General view of the Blue Origin site, on the day Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket lifts off on billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company’s fourth suborbital tourism flight with a crew of six near Van Horn, Texas March 31, 2022. (Portal/Ivan Pierre Aguirre/Portal)
The company determined that no one was injured and there was no damage to property on the ground.
In addition, all critical flight hardware was recovered within days.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Jeff Bezos speaks about his flight into space with Blue Origins New Shepard during a press conference July 20, 2021 in Van Horn, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/Getty Images)
In an investigation conducted overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and NASA members, the Jeff Bezos-owned company determined that a design change to the engine’s boundary layer cooling system led to the problem.
Blue Origin said the issue will be addressed and additional design changes will be implemented to improve structural performance.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
“Blue Origin anticipates returning to flight with a re-flight of the NS-23 payloads soon,” Blue Origin said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.