A capsule from the spacecraft Blue Origin, founded by Amazon creator Jeff Bezos, saw its unmanned space mission aborted on Monday.
The capsule took off from West Texas and began firing around its single engine within the first minute of flight.
The capsule’s emergency release abort system was triggered immediately. Several minutes later, the capsule parachuted into the desert.
Booster fails the day’s flight without crew escape system as designed. pic.twitter.com/xFDsUMONTh
– blueorigin September 12, 2022
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the missile carrying the capsule fell to the ground without causing any injuries or damage.
Although the New Shepard missile was intended for test flights, it was the same model used for 10-minute tour flights.
The FAA also said the missile was unusable while the investigation was ongoing.
Blue Origin said on Twitter: “Looks like we had an anomaly on today’s flight. This was off-plan. (…) Failed to boost on today’s drone flight. Exhaust system works as designed.”
The company did not provide further details.
It was the 23rd flight of the New Shepard program, named after the American in space, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, and the ninth of this specific type of rocket.
The missile launch was supposed to take place about two weeks ago, but was delayed until Monday due to bad weather.
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