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Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin hopes to resume space flights ‘soon’

Washington, United StatesEdited By: Moohita Kaur GargUpdated: Mar 25, 2023, 03:03 PM IST
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Since 2021, Blue Origin has 'safely' flown 32 people — some of them paying customers and some guests. Amazon founder Bezos himself was part of the first flight. Photograph:(Twitter)

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The probe that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is overseeing as per the regulatory body is still open. FAA said that its "approval is required to close the investigation and for the New Shepard System to return to flight"

Billionaire Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin on Friday expressed hopes of resuming flights of its grounded rockets soon. The company's New Shepard suborbital rockets were grounded following an accident in September 2022 that happened shortly after the space vehicle's liftoff from Texas. An investigation into the accident involving the rockets meant to be used for space tourism, among other purposes, is scheduled to be concluded soon. Blue Origin says that it "expects to return to flight soon" re-flying the same NS-23 payloads.

The probe that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is overseeing as per the regulatory body is still open. FAA said that it was "currently reviewing the company's submission of its mishap report."

"FAA approval is required to close the investigation and for the New Shepard System to return to flight," it added in its statement.

Even though, as per AFP, the incident was a blow to Bezos' company, onlookers were reportedly comforted by the probability that had there been passengers, they would have likely been unscathed.

During the mission involving a single booster rocket, there was an anomaly which happened as the vehicle was climbing towards space. Due to the malfunction, the rocket stalled, but the Blue Origin's NS-23 capsule, which was carrying a scientific payload, initiated its escape sequence and out speeding the booster, fell back to Earth.

The booster instead of landing upright — its usual landing position — "impacted the ground" and subsequently, the investigation was launched. Since 2021, Blue Origin has 'safely' flown 32 people — some of them paying customers and some guests. Amazon founder Bezos himself was part of the first flight.

(With inputs from agencies)

 

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