The American space company Blue Origin has postponed until later in the week the takeoff of its New Shepard rocket, which was due to fly again on Monday for the first time since an accident more than a year ago.
• Read also: More than a year after an accident, Blue Origin plans a new takeoff of its rocket next week
The launch, which should mark the great return to the air of the company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, could not take place as planned on Monday “because of a problem with the ground systems,” Blue said. Origin on X.
“We will soon announce a new shooting window for this week,” the company said.
Earlier Monday, Blue Origin had already indicated that it would postpone takeoff by an hour due to low temperatures at the launch pad in west Texas.
The mission, named NS-24, should not carry anyone on board but scientific experiments, more than half of which were developed with the support of NASA.
However, this rocket is also used by the company for space tourism flights, and has already taken 31 people for trips of a few minutes above the final frontier, including Jeff Bezos himself.
The accident which occurred in September 2022 resulted in the crash of the rocket’s propulsion stage, which was also not carrying passengers at the time.
An investigation was opened by the American aviation regulator (FAA), which concluded in September that the accident was caused by “a higher than expected operating temperature of the engine”.
The FAA had requested changes from the space company before flights could resume. These “corrective actions” notably included modifying the design of certain engine components.
The regulator confirmed to AFP on Sunday that it had approved the modified flight license filed by Blue Origin.
New Horizons
The New Shepard rocket is made up of a propulsion stage and, at its top, the capsule carrying its cargo or passengers.
During the mission named NS-23, the capsule’s automatic ejection system was triggered and it fell to the ground slowed by its parachutes.
The main stage had been destroyed by hitting the ground, instead of landing in a controlled manner for reuse, as usual.
All the debris had fallen within the designated safety zone, the FAA noted in September.
Blue Origin competes in the niche of short space tourism flights with Virgin Galactic, a company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson and operates in New Mexico.
But Blue Origin is also developing a heavy launcher, named New Glenn, for which it plans the first flight in 2024. With its 98 meters high, the New Glenn rocket must be able to carry up to 45 tons into low Earth orbit — a completely different scale as New Shepard’s suborbital flights.