WASHINGTON — Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard suborbital vehicle Dec. 19 on its first mission since a mishap more than 15 months ago.
New Shepard lifted off at about 11:43 a.m. Eastern from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. The capsule landed under parachutes about 10 minutes later, after reaching a peak altitude of approximately 107 kilometers, while the propulsion module landed vertically using its engine nearly three minutes earlier.
The mission, called NS-24 by Blue Origin, was previously scheduled for Dec. 18 but scrubbed because of a ground system problem, after being delayed earlier in the morning because of cold weather conditions. The Dec. 19 launch took place after two brief holds in the countdown for unspecified technical issues.
The NS-24 mission carried 33 payloads, many of which were provided via NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which arranges for flights of experiments and technology demonstrations on suborbital vehicles. The mission also carried 38,000 postcards from Club for the Future, an educational nonprofit affiliated with Blue Origin. There were no people on this flight.
More importantly, the launch was the return to flight of New Shepard after a September 2022 mishap when an engine problem triggered the launch abort motor in the capsule. The capsule, again carrying only payloads, landed safely, but the propulsion module was destroyed. A Blue Origin-led investigation concluded in March that the BE-3PM engine nozzle suffered structural failure caused by thermal damage. That damage, in turn, was linked to the engine running hotter than expected.
At the time it completed the investigation, Blue Origin said it would resume flights of New Shepard “soon,” but it took another six months for the Federal Aviation Administration to formally close the investigation and identify 21 corrective actions. At that time Blue Origin again said that it expected to resume flights “soon”…
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