Blue Origin launch ends in explosion, under investigation by FAA
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Monday morning's uncrewed Blue Origin launch of their New Shepard space craft ended in a mishap officially being called an "anomaly", and it is now under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA has grounded all future Blue Origin launches until their investigation is completed.
Just after a minute into the flight, the New Shepard spacecraft suffered an unplanned separation from the rocket booster where a fiery explosion was visible from the ground and seen on Blue Origins streaming coverage of their 23rd launch since their program began.
Ken Ruffin, a Dallas based space expert and president of the National Space Society of North Texas says he expects Blue Origin engineers will be working around the clock to figure out what went wrong.
Ruffin said, "The engineers at Blue Origin will look at everything. They'll look at all the data they've received. Data that's directly relevant. Data that is indirectly relevant."
While the rocket booster came crashing down instead of landing in a controlled upright position, the capsule did return to Earth safely.
The systems aborted the capsule with parachutes as designed, and the capsule filled with experiments and equipment landed in the West Texas desert near the launch site.
CBS News Space Contributor Bill Harwood said the fact the emergency systems worked as planned is a silver lining for Blue Origin and it's founder Jeff Bezos whose goal is to continue to sending paying customers into low space orbit.
Harwood said, "I think Blue Origin will do whatever is required to convince their own engineers and the outside world that it's safe when they get to flying again."
Blue Origin isn't giving many details following the mishap, but the FAA says they will continue to investigate thoroughly before giving the company permission to launch again.