There were no humans – only science experiments – on what was supposed to be another in a series of suborbital flights to the edge of space and back. The company, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, also uses the New Shepard system to fly paying customers and has flown several human missions since Bezos himself flew the first crewed flight last year. (Bezos owns the Washington Post.) Leading up to the launch, Blue Origin’s flight controllers called a series of aborts, delaying the flight. It took off just before 10:30 am. east of the company’s launch site in Van Horn, Texas. After blasting off the launch tower, it entered what is known as “Max Q,” or the moment when aerodynamic pressure is greatest on the vehicle as it pushes through the atmosphere on its way to space. Suddenly, about 1 minute and 5 seconds into the flight, intense flames erupted from the booster and the capsule’s emergency shutdown system kicked in, quickly ejecting it away from the rocket. The capsule’s parachutes later deployed and it landed softly in the West Texas desert. During a live broadcast of the event, Erika Wagner, Blue Origin’s director of payload sales, said: “It appears we encountered an anomaly with today’s flight. This was unplanned and we don’t have details yet. But our crew capsule managed to escape successfully.” On Twitter, Blue Origin wrote: “We are responding to an issue this morning at Launch Site One in West Texas. This was a payload mission without astronauts. The capsule’s escape system worked as designed. More information will come as it becomes available.” Blue Origin has repeatedly said it designed the vehicle to ensure safety, and before flying people, it rigorously tested the capsule’s emergency escape system on the ground and twice in flight. During one test, they simulated a parachute failure so that the spacecraft landed under two parachutes instead of three. “Safety is our highest value at Blue Origin,” Wagner said. “That’s why we created so much redundancy in the system.” In an interview last year, Gary Lai, the senior director of New Shepard’s design team, said that “flights are just the tip of the iceberg—the part floating above the water that people can see. We test the vehicle on the ground, the components, the software, many more times than we fly. To the point where when we do the flight tests we’re actually pretty confident that it’s going to work.” The capsule contained 36 payloads from schools, universities and organizations, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. It was the fourth flight for New Shepard this year and the ninth flight for the reusable vehicle, which the company said is dedicated to the flight of science and research in space. In all, Blue Origin has flown 31 people into space and hoped to fly more this year. That will be on hold while the airline investigates what went wrong on Monday’s flight. The crash comes as the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board work to clarify who investigates space flight crashes. Last week, the agencies signed an agreement detailing how they will work together in the event of an accident. The NTSB will be the lead agency in any commercial space accidents that result in death or serious injury to anyone or if there is damage to property unrelated to the launch. In a statement, the FAA said it would oversee an accident investigation into Monday’s crash because “the capsule landed safely and the booster impacted the designated hazard area. No injuries or damage to public property have been reported.” Before New Shepard returns to flight, the FAA “will determine whether any system, process or procedure related to the accident affected public safety,” it said. In addition to Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic also aims to fly paying customers to the edge of space. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has flown a number of NASA astronaut crews to the International Space Station, as well as private astronaut missions. Boeing also plans to begin flying astronauts early next year. The industry is lightly regulated, enjoying a mandate from Congress that commercial spaceflight is still in its infancy and thus in a “learning period.” Emerging space companies should be allowed to innovate and grow, advocates say, before the government can impose strict rules governing how they operate.
