Blue Origin sends 6 tourists to the edge of space after a hiatus of almost 2 years

One Blue Origin tourist rocket launched six passengers to the edge of space for the first time in almost two years, ending a company hiatus after an unmanned test flight failed in 2022.

The rocket and the capsule New Shepard took off at 9:36 am local time (11:36 am Brasília time) from Blue Origin’s facilities on a private farm in West Texas, in the United States.

O NS-25the seventh manned flight of Jeff Bezos’ space travel company to date, carried six clients aboard the capsule: the venture capitalist Mason Angel; Sylvain Chiron, founder of French craft brewery Brasserie Mont-Blanc; the software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess; the retired accountant Carol Schaller; the aviator Gopi Thotakura; It is Ed Dwighta retired U.S. Air Force captain selected by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to be the nation’s first black astronaut candidate.

Despite completing training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School and receiving a recommendation from the Air Force, Dwight never ended up joining the NASA Astronaut Corps. — he became a businessman and sculptor.

A new National Geographic documentary about black astronauts, “The Space Race,” highlights Dwight’s pioneering story.

“I had no intention of being an astronaut. That was the last thing on my bucket list,” Dwight said in the documentary. “But as soon as I received the challenge, everything changed.”

Dwight completed this challenge and reached the edge of space at age 90, becoming the oldest person to reach this height, according to a Blue Origin spokesperson.

“I didn’t think I really needed this in my life,” he said on Blue Origin’s live stream after the capsule landed. “But now I need this in my life.”

The booster rocket landed safely a few minutes before the capsule.

During the mission, the crew flew more than three times the speed of sound — more than 3,200 km/h.

The rocket bounced the capsule beyond the Kármán line: the imaginary line 100 kilometers above the sea line that is internationally recognized as the line where Earth’s atmosphere ends and outer space begins – although there is discussion around this consensus.

At the height of the flight, passengers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and an impressive view of Earth through the cabin windows.

The launch follows the success of an unmanned science mission in December – the New Shepard program’s first flight since its failure in September 2022, more than a year earlier.

New Shepard’s failed launch in 2022

A New Shepard rocket and spacecraft scheduled to launch a batch of scientific instruments on September 12, 2022 resulted in a failure for Bezos’ company.

One minute into the flight, the rocket faced Max Q – an aerospace term that refers to the moment of maximum stress on a vehicle. This occurs when the rocket is at a relatively low altitude – where the atmosphere is still quite thick – but the spacecraft is moving at high speed, creating a moment of intense pressure on the vehicle.

At that time, the rocket appeared to suffer a huge burst of flames. The New Shepard capsule, which sits atop the rocket, then initiated its launch abort system – turning on a small engine to safely move away from the failed rocket. This system worked as planned, parachuting the capsule to a safe landing.

Blue Origin later revealed that the cause of the failure was a problem with the engine nozzle, a large cone that directs burning exhaust toward the bottom of the rocket. The onboard computers accurately detected the fault and shut down the engine, according to the company.

No injuries were reported on the ground, and Blue Origin said the science payloads and capsule could fly again.

However, the rocket, left without a working engine, returned to the ground and was destroyed. Typically, after New Shepard launches, the rocket is guided back to a safe vertical landing so it can fly again.

During a December interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Bezos said the escape system that launches the capsule to safety is the most difficult piece of engineering in the entire rocket — but “it’s the reason I feel comfortable letting anyone go on the New Shepard.”

“The (rocket) booster is as safe and reliable as we can make it,” Bezos added. “The power density is so enormous that it is impossible to be sure that nothing will go wrong. … So the only way to improve safety is to have an escape system.”

“In my opinion, a touring vehicle has to be designed… to be as safe as possible,” he said. “You can’t make it perfectly safe. It’s impossible.”

Rocket repair and back to work

The US Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches and is responsible for ensuring public safety, oversaw an investigation into the 2022 failure.

The investigation revealed that the engine nozzle failed because it experienced higher temperatures than anticipated by the company.

To resolve the issue, Blue Origin said it implemented “design changes to the combustion chamber” – the area of ​​the engine where the fuel mixes explosively with the oxidizer – and adjusted the “operational parameters”, that is, the data that the company uses to model safe flights.

“Additional changes to the nozzle design have improved structural performance under thermal and dynamic loads,” the company said in a March 2023 statement.

The US Federal Aviation Administration formally concluded its investigation into the crash on September 27, 2023, outlining 21 “corrective actions” that Blue Origin would need to implement before resuming flight. The agency did not reveal details about what these actions were, noting that the report “contains proprietary data and U.S. export control information and is not available for public release.”

The changes and the successful flight of New Shephard in December 2023 encouraged the company to restart its trips to space for those seeking strong emotions.

Before the September 2022 failure, New Shepard rockets flew 22 consecutive successful missions – including six with passengers on board.

Bezos flew aboard the rocket in 2021. Other notable space tourists previously transported by the vehicle include “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan.

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This content was originally created in English.

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