Kent-based Blue Origin took another step in its plan to eventually carry people into space when the unmanned New Shepard capsule’s escape system worked during an in-flight test.
New Shepard blasted off at the company’s West Texas launch site at 8:36 a.m. on Wednesday, testing the system to quickly propel the crew capsule to safety if a problem is detected with the booster, according to the Blue Origin website.
At 16,053 feet and 45 seconds into the fight, the capsule separated and the escape motor fired, pushing the capsule safely away from the booster.
Reaching an apogee of 23,269 feet, the capsule then descended under parachutes to a gentle landing on the desert floor at about five minutes after blast off.
After the capsule escape, the booster continued its ascent, reaching an apogee of 307,458 feet. A few minutes later, the booster then executed a controlled, vertical landing back at the West Texas Launch Site, completing its fifth and final mission.
Jeff Bezos, a billionaire and Amazon.com founder, started Blue Origin in 2000 in his efforts to build launch vehicles to carry people to space.
In an email last month about the test flight, Bezos said the flight is going to be dramatic, no matter how it ends.
“The New Shepard escape motor pushes rather than pulls and is mounted underneath the capsule rather than on a tower,” he wrote. “There is no jettison operation. On a nominal mission, the escape motor is not expended and can be flown again and again.
“We’ve already tested our pusher escape system, including many ground tests and a successful pad escape test, but this upcoming flight will be our toughest test yet. We’ll intentionally trigger an escape in flight and at the most stressing condition: maximum dynamic pressure through transonic velocities.”
Bezos had expected the booster to be destroyed. Instead, it survived.
“If the booster does manage to survive this flight, we will in fact reward it for its service with a retirement party and put it in a museum,” he wrote.
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