Blue Origin Rocket Flies to Space Again

The Blue Origin New Shepard rocket successfully launched on Tuesday from Texas, marking the return to space for the American company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, more than a year after an accident.

Ten minutes after takeoff, the capsule of mission NS-24 – without passengers but with scientific equipment – gently landed in the desert of the American West, according to a live video broadcast.

This return to space is expected to enable the continuation of space tourism operations for Blue Origin, which has already taken 31 wealthy adventurers on journeys of several minutes above the final frontier, including Jeff Bezos himself.

“Demand for New Shepard flights is increasing, and we hope to accelerate our flight frequency in 2024,” said Phil Joyce, the company’s vice president.
The rocket successfully took off from West Texas, and less than 8 minutes after launch, its reusable booster stage safely landed on a designated area in the dry plains of southern United States. About two minutes later, its capsule landed using parachutes. The total duration of the mission was 10 minutes and 13 seconds.

There were no people on board except for equipment to conduct scientific experiments during a few moments of microgravity – the capsule flew to 107 kilometers above Earth, beyond the boundary of space (100 km).

For example, one of the experiments aimed to better understand how water and gas move in a zero-gravity environment.

The accident that occurred in September 2022 resulted in the booster stage of the rocket falling, and at that time the rocket was not carrying passengers. An investigation was opened by the U.S. aviation regulator (FAA), which concluded in September that the accident was caused by “higher than expected engine operating temperature.” The FAA requested changes from the space company before flights could resume. These “corrective actions” particularly involved modifying the design of certain engine components.