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Blue Origin’s tourist rocket is poised to send passengers to the edge of space for the first time in nearly two years, ending a hiatus sparked by a failed uncrewed test flight.
The New Shepard rocket and capsule are scheduled to lift off during a window that opens at 8:30 a.m. CT (9:30 a.m. ET) from Blue Origin’s facilities on a private farm in West Texas. A live stream of the mission, called NS-25, will begin at approximately 7:50 a.m. CT (8:50 a.m. ET) on the website of the company founded by Jeff Bezos.
NS-25, Blue Origin’s seventh crewed flight to date, will carry six customers aboard the spacecraft: venture capitalist Mason Angel; Sylvain Chiron, founder of French craft brewery Brasserie Mont-Blanc; software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess; retired accountant Carol Schaller; aviator Gopi Thotakura; and Ed Dwight, a retired United States Air Force captain who was selected by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to be the nation’s first Black astronaut candidate.
Despite completing training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School and receiving a commendation from the Air Force, Dwight ultimately did not make the NASA Astronaut Corps. He went on to become an entrepreneur and sculptor; National Geographic’s new documentary on Black astronauts, “The Space Race,” tells Dwight’s groundbreaking story.
“I had no intention of becoming an astronaut. That was the last thing on my bucket list,” Dwight said in the documentary. “But when I was given the challenge, everything changes.”
Dwight will complete that challenge and reach the edge of space at the age of 90, making him the oldest person to reach that height, according to a spokesperson from Blue Origin.
During the mission, the crew will travel to more than three times the speed of sound, or more than 2,000 miles per hour. The rocket will move the capsule over the Kármán line, a distance of 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface that is It is widely recognized as the height at which outer space begins – but there are many gray areas.
And at the peak of the flight, passengers will experience for a few minutes weightlessness and spectacular views of the Earth through the cabin windows.
The launch follows the success of an unmanned science mission in December – the first flight of the New Shepard program since the disaster more than a year earlier.
Failure 2022 New Shepard
The New Shepard rocket and spacecraft were set to launch a batch of scientific instruments on September 12, 2022. Just one minute into flight, the rocket experienced Max Q – an aerospace term that refers to the moment of maximum stress on a vehicle. It happens when the rocket is at a relatively low altitude — where the atmosphere is still relatively thick — but the spacecraft is moving at high speeds, which creates a moment of great pressure on the vehicle.
Around that time, the rocket appeared to release a huge burst of flames. The New Shepard capsule, which rides on top of the rocket, then activated its launch inhibition system – firing a small engine to blast itself safely away from the malfunctioning rocket. That system worked as intended, parachuting the capsule to a safe landing.
Blue Origin later revealed that the cause of the failure was a problem with the engine’s nozzle, a large cone that directs the flaming exhaust at the bottom of the rocket. On-board computers accurately detected the failure and shut down the engine, according to the company.
No injuries were reported on the ground, and Blue Origin said the science payloads and capsule could be flown again.
But the rocket, left without a functioning engine, smashed back into the ground and was destroyed. Normally after launching a New Shepard, the rocket booster guides itself back to a safe landing just so it can be flown again.
During a December interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Bezos said the escape system that launched the capsule to safety was the most difficult piece of engineering in the entire rocket — but “it’s because I’m comfortable letting someone anything go on New Shepard.”
“The (rocket) booster is as safe and reliable as we can make it,” Bezos added. “The power density is so huge that you can never be sure that nothing will go wrong. … So the only way to improve safety is to have an escape system.
“A tourist vehicle has to be designed in my opinion … to be as safe as possible,” he said. “You can’t do it safely. It’s impossible.”
Rocket setup and return to service
The Federal Aviation Administration, which authorizes commercial rocket launches and is responsible for ensuring public safety, oversaw an investigation into the failure. The probe revealed that the engine nozzle failed because it had higher temperatures than the company expected.
To fix the issue, Blue Origin said it implemented “design changes to the combustion chamber” — the area of the engine where fuel explosively mixes with an oxidizer — and changed “operating parameters,” or the data the company uses to model safe flights.
“Additional design changes to the nozzle improved structural performance under thermal and dynamic loads,” the company said in a March 2023 statement.
The FAA formally concluded the disaster investigation on September 27, 2023, outlining 21 “corrective actions” that Blue Origin needed to implement before returning to flight. The agency did not disclose details of those actions, noting that the report contains proprietary and US Export Control data. information and is not available for public release.”
The changes and the successful flight of New Shephard in December put pressure on the company to resume its trips to space for thrill seekers.
Before the September 2022 failure, the New Shepard rocket had flown 22 consecutive successful missions – including six with passengers on board. Bezos flew aboard the rocket in 2021. Other notable space tourists previously carried by the vehicle include “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan.
CNN’s Madeline Holcombe contributed to this report.
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