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Blue Origin's tourist rocket has launched passengers to the edge of space for the first time in nearly two years, ending a hiatus caused by a failed uncrewed test flight.
The New Shepard rocket and capsule lifted off at 9:36 a.m. Central Time (10:36 a.m. ET) from Blue Origin's facility on a private ranch in West Texas.
NS-25 was Blue Origin's seventh manned flight to date, with six customers on board the capsule. venture capitalist Mason Angell; Sylvain Chiron, founder of French craft brewery Brasserie Mont Blanc. Kenneth L. Hess, software engineer and entrepreneur. former accountant Carol Schaller; Aviator Gopi Sotakula. and Ed Dwight, a former Air Force captain who was selected by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 as America's first black astronaut candidate.
Despite completing training at Aerospace Research Pilot School and receiving an Air Force recommendation, Dwight was ultimately not selected for the NASA astronaut corps. He became an entrepreneur and a sculptor. Dwight's pioneering story is highlighted in National His Geographic's new documentary about black astronauts, “The Space Race.”
“I had no intention of being an astronaut at all. It was the last thing on my bucket list,” Dwight said in the documentary. “But once you are given a challenge, everything changes.”
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Ed Dwight emerges from the Blue Origin Mission NS-25 capsule after Sunday's flight.
Dwight completed the challenge and reached the edge of space at the age of 90, making him the oldest person to reach such heights, according to a Blue Origin spokesperson.
“I thought I didn't need this in my life,” Dwight said of the experience on Blue Origin's livestream after the capsule landed at 9:46 a.m. PT (10:46 a.m. ET). Told. “But I lied. I really, really needed it.”
“It’s a life-changing experience,” he said. “Everyone needs to do this.”
The rocket booster landed safely minutes before the capsule.
During the mission, the crew climbed to more than three times the speed of sound, or more than 2,000 miles per hour. The rocket soared over the capsule, taking him over the Kármán Line, an area 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the Earth's surface. Although it is widely recognized as the altitude at which outer space begins, there are many gray areas.
And at the peak of the flight, passengers experienced several minutes of weightlessness and impressive views of the Earth from their cabin windows.
The launch follows a successful unmanned science mission in December and marks the New Shepard mission's first flight since its accident more than a year ago.
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Blue Origin's NS-25 mission will return to the surface on Sunday after reaching the edge of space.
The new Shepard rocket and spacecraft were scheduled to launch a series of scientific instruments on September 12, 2022. However, the rocket withstood Max Q (an aerospace term for the moment of maximum stress on a vehicle) within the first minute of flight. This occurs when the rocket is at a relatively low altitude, that is, when the atmosphere is still quite thick, but the spacecraft is moving at high speed, and there is a moment when the rocket is under strong pressure.
At that time, it appeared that the rocket burst into flames. The New Shepard capsule on top of the rocket then activated its launch abort system, starting its small engines and safely flying away from the malfunctioning rocket. The system worked as intended and the capsule landed safely with a parachute.
Blue Origin later revealed that the failure was caused by a problem with the large conical engine nozzle that directed fiery exhaust at the bottom of the rocket. According to the company, the on-board computer accurately detected the failure and shut down the engine.
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The NS-25 mission has a six-person crew, including (from left) Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Ed Dwight, Gopi Sotakula, Mason Angell, and Carol Schaller.
No injuries were reported on the ground, and Blue Origin said the scientific payload and capsule could fly again.
However, the rocket was left without a functioning engine and crashed into the ground. And it was destroyed. Typically, after New Shepard's launch, the rocket's boosters guide itself to a safe upright landing so it can fly again.
In a December interview with podcaster Rex Fridman, Bezos said that the escape system, which jettisons the capsule to a safe location, is the most difficult engineering part of the entire rocket, but that “that's what I think anyone who wants to do is New Shepard.'' This is why I can ride with confidence.”
“(Rocket) boosters are as safe and reliable as we can make them,” Bezos added. “The power density is so great that it is impossible to be sure that nothing will go wrong. …So the only way to increase safety is to have an escape system.
“In my opinion, tourist vehicles must be designed to be as safe as possible,” he said. “You can't make it completely safe. It's impossible.”
Repair the rocket and return it to service
The Federal Aviation Administration, which authorizes commercial rocket launches and is responsible for ensuring public safety, oversaw an investigation into the failure. An investigation revealed that the engine nozzle had failed due to exposure to higher temperatures than the company expected.
To solve this problem, Blue Origin has implemented “combustion chamber design changes” (the part of the engine where the fuel mixes explosively with the oxidizer) and “operating parameters”, or what the company calls safe flight modeling. He said he had adjusted the data used to do so.
“Additional design changes to the nozzle have improved structural performance against thermal and dynamic loads,” the company said in a March 2023 statement.
The FAA officially closed its accident investigation on September 27, 2023, and outlined 21 “corrective actions” that must be taken before Blue Origin can return to flight. The agency noted that the report “includes proprietary data and U.S. export controls,” without providing details on what those actions might be. Informational and not available to the public. ”
This change, and the success of New Shepard's December flight, encouraged the company to resume space travel for thrill-seekers.
Before its failure in September 2022, the New Shepard rocket had flown 22 consecutive successful missions, six of which carried passengers. Bezos flew on this rocket in 2021. Famous space travelers who have flown on the rocket include “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan.
CNN's Madeline Holcomb contributed to this report.
