Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin plans to return its New Shepard suborbital rocket to flight as early as Dec. 18, the company said Tuesday as it looks to resume its space tourism business.
“We are targeting a launch window opening on December 18 for our next New Shepard payload mission,” Blue Origin wrote on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.
There will be no humans on board, but there will be 33 science and research payloads, the company added, referring to the cargo that will support experiments in space.
New Shepard, which carries cargo and humans on short trips to the edge of space, has been grounded since an unmanned mission in September 2022 failed about a minute after liftoff from Texas, forcing the rocket capsule full of NASA experiments to eject safely in mid-flight.
In March, the company determined that a “structural failure” in the rocket’s motor nozzle caused last year’s failure.
There were no humans on board, although New Shepard has previously flown on several missions carrying tourists, as well as Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, on the rocket’s maiden flight in 2021.
A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket lifts off with a crew of six from launch site one in west Texas December 11, 2021. REUTERS
The US Federal Aviation Administration closed its review of Blue Origin’s New Shepard research in September and agreed with the company’s conclusions.
It required Blue Origin to take 21 corrective actions, including an engine redesign and “organizational changes.”
New Shepard is flying again as Blue Origin races to get its much larger New Glenn rocket off the ground for the first time, planned for late 2024.
While New Shepard only reaches the edge of space, New Glenn is designed to deploy heavier payloads into orbit as the centerpiece of Blue Origin’s goal to rival Elon Musk’s dominant SpaceX.
Bezos has restructured the company’s leadership and corporate structure in recent months, Reuters reported.
Veteran Amazon executive Dave Limp started as Blue Origin’s new CEO earlier this month.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn