The launch of Blue Origin’s space tourism rocket was canceled hours before its scheduled time on Monday due to “a ground system issue” and has been rescheduled for Tuesday morning, with a live broadcast on the company’s website.
Main Facts
The New Shepard rocket will carry 33 scientific and research payloads, along with 38,000 postcards from the Club for the Future, when it launches from West Texas on Tuesday.
The successful next mission for the New Shepard rocket will be a significant step in Blue Origin’s plan to send paying tourists to the edge of space, having already transported over twenty people, including Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
This will be the first launch of the New Shepard rocket since a failed mission in September 2022, where a nozzle failure caused a massive explosion of flame about a minute after liftoff.
The launch escape system allowed the New Shepard capsule to separate from the malfunctioning rocket and land safely under parachutes, but the failure prompted an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration which identified 21 corrective actions for Blue Origin, including redesigning the engine and nozzle component.
What to Watch For
Set for launch at 10:37 AM Eastern Time, the live broadcast will begin on the Blue Origin website about 20 minutes before liftoff.
Main Background
The New Shepard space tourism vehicle is designed to carry six people on an 11-minute journey to space, according to Blue Origin. Notable passengers aboard New Shepard have included Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, William Shatner, Michael Strahan, and Mary “Wally” Funk. The exact price for a ticket on New Shepard is unknown, but the first ticket sold through an online auction in 2021 fetched $28 million.
Reports from Ars Technica state that the cost to maintain and operate the New Shepard rocket is $100 million annually for Blue Origin.
Critical Quote
“The booster is as safe and reliable as we can make it,” Bezos told Fridman on the podcast. “The energy density is so great that it’s impossible to be completely sure that nothing will go wrong. So the only way to improve safety is to have an escape system… you cannot make it perfectly safe. That’s impossible.”
The Big Number
$3.4 billion. That’s the value of the contract held by Blue Origin with NASA to provide lunar landing services under the Artemis program, which will send more American astronauts to the Moon under this contract.
Forbes Assessment
Bezos is the third richest person in the world as of Tuesday, with a net worth estimated at $176.3 billion. Bezos launched Blue Origin in September 2000, and it has since become a defense contractor and leader in space technology alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
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