Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture plans to send its New Shepard suborbital spaceship on an uncrewed research mission as early as Dec. 18, marking the company’s first launch since a rocket engine malfunction spoiled a similar uncrewed mission more than a year ago.
In an update posted to X / Twitter, Blue Origin said the upcoming mission, known as NS24, would carry 33 science and research payloads — plus 38,000 postcards sent in by students as part of a program organized by the Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s educational nonprofit.
No further details were available, but it’s possible that at least some of the payloads (and postcards) have been carried over from the mission that went awry in September 2022. New Shepard’s launch escape system worked as planned for that NS23 mission, and the capsule was unharmed even though the booster was destroyed.
A successful uncrewed mission could smooth the way for the resumption of crewed flights soon afterward.
An investigation overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration determined that the booster’s BE-3 rocket engine malfunctioned when its nozzle suffered a structural failure, due to engine operating temperatures that were higher than expected. The FAA required Blue Origin to take 21 corrective actions, including design changes for the engine as well as organizational changes.
The fact that Blue Origin is gearing up for a return to flight next week might seem to imply that the company has fully addressed the corrective actions. However, the FAA said there’s still some work to do. “The FAA and Blue Origin are continuing to work on outstanding items related to the license modification application,” the regulatory agency said in an emailed statement.
Thirty-one people — including Bezos himself — have taken suborbital trips to the edge of space and back from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas since mid-2021. Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, has said she would lead one of the upcoming crewed flights and take five other women with her.
In addition to the New Shepard suborbital space program in Texas, Blue Origin is gearing up for orbital New Glenn launches from Florida, working on its Blue Moon lunar lander for NASA’s eventual use, and continuing development of the Orbital Reef commercial space station. All this is taking place amid a transition that is shifting CEO responsibilities from veteran aerospace executive Bob Smith to former Amazon executive Dave Limp.
We’ve updated this report with a statement from the FAA.
