Bezos’ Blue Origin to start flights again after more than a year

Blue Origin will soon use its New Shepard reusable rocket in what would be the spacecraft’s first flight since September of last year.

That goal, which Blue Origin unveiled Tuesday, comes about fifteen months after its New Shepard suborbital flights were paused in the wake of a Sept. 12, 2022, failure that its NS-23 mission experienced. That flight did not have any people on it.

The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said it had set its sights on “a launch window that opens on Dec. 18 for our next New Shepard payload mission.”

The mishap that prompted the pause in New Shepard flights had led to a company probe that the Federal Aviation Administration said got wrapped up a few months ago. 

“The final report cites the proximate cause of the Sept. 12, 2022, mishap as the structural failure of an engine nozzle caused by higher than expected engine operating temperatures,” the FAA said in its press release at the time. “The FAA required Blue Origin to implement 21 corrective actions to prevent mishap recurrence, including redesign of the engine and nozzle components to improve structural performance during operation as well as organizational changes.”

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Blue Origin said Tuesday the mission it wants to conduct next week “will carry 33 science and research payloads as well as 38,000 @clubforfuture postcards to space.”

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Club for the Future is a Blue Origin-linked foundation that aims to “inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space,” according to its website. The nonprofit said it adds a “Flown to Space” stamp to the postcards and sends them back to their authors once they’ve been carried on a New Shepard flight.

The NS-24 flight would bring Blue Origin’s total for New Shepard up to 24. Of all the missions it has flown with the rocket, six have brought humans on the suborbital trips.

The New Shepard rocket itself can fit six crew members and derives its name from legendary U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard, according to Blue Origin. Its flights typically span 11 minutes.

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Blue Origin, which has its New Glenn rocket in the works, has been around since 2000. It also works with NASA, having been tapped in May to build a lunar lander. 

Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.