Cape Canaveral Sept. 12 (BUS): A rocket crashed back to Earth shortly after takeoff Monday in Jeff Bezos’ space travel company’s first launch, but the capsule carrying experiments managed to parachute to safety.
No one was on board the Blue Origin flight, which used the same type of rocket as the one that sends paying customers to the edge of space, AP reports.
The FAA said the missiles are now grounded pending the outcome of the investigation.
The New Shepard missile was barely a minute into its flight from West Texas when bright yellow flames shot out from around the single engine at the bottom.
The capsule’s emergency launch abort system began immediately, lifting the craft off the top. Several minutes later, the capsule parachuted onto the floor of the distant desert.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for public safety during commercial space launches and landings, said the missile went down, with no injuries or damage reported.
The accident occurred when the missile was moving at 700 mph (1,126 km/h) at an altitude of about 28,000 feet (8,500 metres).
No video of the missile – only the capsule – appeared after the failure. It happened around the point where the rocket is under maximum pressure called max-q.
The rocket usually lands upright on desert ground and is then recycled for future flights.
The webcast showed that the capsule had reached a maximum altitude of over 37,000 feet (11,300 metres).
Thirty-six onboard trials were exposed to a few minutes of weightlessness. Half of them are sponsored by NASA, and most of them are students.
It was flight 23 of the New Shepard program, named after the first American in space, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard. This was the ninth flight of this pair of rocket capsules, which were intended for flight trials.
The missile was supposed to have been launched nearly two weeks ago, but was halted until Monday due to bad weather.
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