It’s been a full year since Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spacecraft last left Earth.
New Shepard was last launched on an unmanned research mission on September 12, 2022, from the Blue Origin site in West Texas. About 65 seconds after takeoff, the reusable first stage booster developed a problem and crashed violently into the desert floor. The new Shepard capsule activated its emergency escape system and landed safely under its parachute, with its 36 research payloads intact.
In March, Blue Origin announced the results of an anomaly investigation. The first stage’s single BE-3PM engine’s nozzle suffered a “thermal structural failure,” causing thrust misalignment and prematurely ending the mission.
Related: Blue Origin’s New Shepard failure is a reminder that spaceflight remains difficult
among them Announcement on March 24th, Blue Origin said it has begun implementing several corrective measures “including design changes to combustion chambers and operating parameters to reduce engine nozzle bulk and hot streak temperatures.” The company also stressed that it expects to relaunch the same 36 research payloads and return them to flight “soon.”
But five and a half months after that update, New Shepard still hasn’t taken off. Blue Origin has not provided further information about New Shepard’s status or announced a return to flight schedule.
The ill-fated flight in September 2022 was designated NS-23 because it was the 23rd New Shepard mission overall. Six of them transported people to and from suborbital space. The latest manned flight entered service in August 2022.
While New Shepard was grounded, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin’s main competitor in the suborbital space tourism business, launched four passenger missions with its VSS Unity spaceplane. .
Including test flights, Virgin Galactic currently has eight crewed space missions, two more than Blue Origin.
The companies will offer customers minutes of weightlessness and a view of Earth against the darkness of space. However, VSS Unity stays in the air significantly longer than New Shepard. 60 to 90 minutes, compared to 10 to 12 minutes on average.