Blue Origin confirmed the rocket suffered a booster failure on Twitter, but noted that “the escape system performed as designed.” The rocket lifted off at approximately 10:26 am. ET from Blue Origin’s site in West Texas, with the capsule carrying 36 payloads containing scientific research equipment. Shortly after the flight (around 1:21:49 in the live stream), you can see the moment Blue Origin activates the escape system. “Looks like we encountered an anomaly with today’s flight,” says the commentator during the live stream. “This was unplanned and we don’t have details yet. But our crew capsule managed to escape successfully, we will follow its progress until landing. As you can see, the drogues have been deployed and the network will be retired afterwards.” During the process, the capsule remains intact and develops pipelines before it begins its journey back to Earth. As Ars Technica space editor Eric Berger noted, if there were people on board, they would “feel a severe jolt” but would likely “be safe.” Update Sep 12, 11:47 AMET: Updated to add Blue Origin confirmation of booster failure.
