Space company Blue Origin said on Friday it wanted to resume flights of its rockets “soon” but could only do so if the conclusions of an investigation into the causes of the accident last year were accepted by the aviation regulator.
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Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is notably used by the Jeff Bezos company for space tourism flights from Texas, but at the time of the September 2022 accident, it was only carrying scientific experiments.
The rocket consists of a single stage and at its tip the capsule that carries its cargo.
During the mission, dubbed NS-23, the main stage had suffered an anomaly that had triggered the capsule’s automatic ejection system, which had fallen back to the ground, slowed by its parachutes.
The main stage “hit the ground,” Blue Origin said at the time, rather than landing in a controlled manner to be reused as usual.
An investigation has since been launched under the supervision of the United States Air Traffic Control Authority (FAA) to determine the cause of the accident.
The investigation “remains open for now” and flights of the New Shepard missiles cannot resume until the investigation is officially closed, the FAA said when asked by AFP. “The agency is currently evaluating the company’s incident report,” she added.
But Blue Origin shared the conclusions back on Friday: the anomaly was caused by a “thermostructural” problem at the level of an engine’s nozzle (the duct through which the combustion gases are expelled), resulting in “misalignment” at the time of the bump.
Specifically, this engine component was exposed to higher than expected temperatures, the investigation said. “Design changes” to several elements are intended to prevent this problem in the future, the company said.
Blue Origin said it plans to resume flights “soon” by restarting the NS-23 mission, with the same scientific cargo recovered intact.
It “landed safely” after the anomaly, thanks to an ejection system that worked “as expected,” the company said.
Blue Origin has sent 32 people into space since July 2021, when its boss Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, took part in the first flight. Space tourists remain in zero gravity for only a few minutes.
The company Virgin Galactic is also positioned in this niche of short trips in space tourism, but has not flown anyone since July 2021.