Blue Origin returns to form with a successful rocket launch after being grounded for over a year

Blue Origin’s 24th mission is officially a success. The New Shepard rocket lifted off as planned this morning and the booster and crew capsule separated safely in mid-flight and landed back on this big blue marble we call Earth.

This was an uncrewed mission, but it carried 33 scientific payloads to low orbit, more than half of them from NASA. The launch allowed for a few minutes of zero gravity in which researchers conducted remote studies on these payloads. For example, a payload of Bee Robotics He studied the resistance of planetary soils under different gravity conditions. The manifesto also included 38,000 postcards from students of the Club for the Future Initiative.

For those following this mission, the original launch was scrapped on Monday due to an Earth system issue that has obviously been fixed. No issues were reported regarding today’s flight, although there was a slight delay of a few minutes added to the countdown.

This mission was basically a repeat of a flight from last year that ended prematurely due to a malfunction of the New Shepard booster’s hydrogen-based rocket motor. This anomaly led to the suspension of Blue Origin launches until an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was completed.

The FAA investigation ended in September, freeing Blue Origin for further launches once it handled a set of agency-mandated corrective actions. This included a redesign of the engine and propellant nozzle, as well as some procedural changes. The company has not announced any official plans for future manned flights, but it recently installed an elevator in the launch tower. This is to make future releases “more accessible to people with disabilities and more people in general,” said release commentator Erika Wagner. he said during today’s live broadcast.

To that end, Blue Origin has begun to increase promotions to attract customers for manned flights. You also can apply to add a payload to a future release.