The Federal Aviation Administration has closed its investigation into Blue Origin’s New Shepard failed launch in September 2022, but the suborbital rocket remains grounded.
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In a statement released Wednesday, the FAA announced that it had closed the mishap investigation on September 12, 2022, pinpointing “the structural failure of an engine nozzle caused by higher than expected engine operating temperature,” as the cause of the launch failure.
The FAA requires Blue Origin to implement 21 corrective actions, including the redesign of the engine and nozzle components on its New Shepard rocket, before the launch vehicle can resume its launches.
Last year, an uncrewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ended in failure around a minute after liftoff. The rocket’s booster exploded mid-flight, and its capsule abandoned ship. The booster failure happened as the rocket was traveling in excess of 700 miles per hour (1,130 kilometers per hour) and while it was 29,000 feet (8,840 meters) above the ground.
New Shepard was carrying 36 payloads, more than half of which belonged to NASA. The malfunction was the first for Blue Origin’s launch vehicle, which is primarily used to shuttle passengers to suborbital heights as part the company’s space tourism service. New Shepard has performed six crewed flights since July 2021.
Following the launch mishap, the FAA suspended launches of New Shepard as it launched an investigation into the rocket failure. In March, Blue Origin released the results of its own investigation, blaming a faulty nozzle on the booster’s engine that overheated as a result of increased temperatures, which caused “thermal damage and hot streaks.” With the conclusion of its investigation, Blue Origin “expects to return to flight soon,” the company wrote in its press release at the time.
It’s still not clear, however, how far Blue Origin is in implementing the corrective actions mandated by the FAA before it can see its rocket reach suborbital space.
Days after Blue Origin appointed David Limp, a former Amazon tech executive, as its new CEO (effective this coming December), he’s set to replace Bob Smith, under whose tenure the company struggled.
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