Blue Origin’s Tourism Rocket Launches Six Passengers to the Edge of Space After Two-Year Pause Due to Engine Malfunction

In April 2001, space tourism started when American businessman and engineer Dennis Tito traveled to space aboard a Soyuz-TM32 spacecraft. Since then, a number of orbital and suborbital flights have carried human travelers for recreational purposes.

Just recently, Jeff Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, launched its first crew to space since 2022, restarting space tourism operations.

Space Tourism Success

On May 19, Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket and capsule carried six passengers. The rocket and capsule launched at 10:36 a.m. ET from a private ranch in West Texas. The NS-25 mission is the company's seventh crewed flight to date.

The six customers aboard the capsule include aviator Gopi Thotakura, retired accountant Carol Schaller, software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess, French craft brewery founder Sylvain Chiron, venture capitalist Mason Angel, and retired US Air Force captain Ed Dwight. The 11-minute suborbital flight launched the passengers into zero gravity, allowing them to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and a striking view of the Earth's horizon.

During the mission, the crew traveled more than 2,000 miles per hour (3,219 kilometers per hour), or more than three times the speed of sound. The rocket vaulted the capsule past the Kármán line, an area above the surface of the Earth widely recognized as the altitude at which outer space begins.

The latest launch followed the success of an uncrewed mission in December, the first flight of the New Shepard program since its mishap more than a year earlier.

What Caused NS Mission's 2022 Failure?

On September 12, 2022, a New Shepard rocket and spacecraft were set to lift off a batch of science instruments into space. One minute into flight, however, the rocket experienced Max Q, an aerospace term which refers to a moment of maximum stress on a space vehicle. This occurs when the rocket is at a relatively low altitude, yet the spacecraft moves at high speeds, forming a moment of intense pressure on the vehicle.

At that time, the rocket also appeared to release a massive burst of flames. As the New Shepard capsule rode atop the rocket, it initiated its launch abort system and fired up a small engine to blast itself away from the malfunctioning engine. This system worked as intended, parachuting the capsule to a safe landing.

In a recent statement, Blue Origin revealed that a problem with the engine nozzle caused the failure. The mishap was accurately detected by onboard computers, which shut the engine down. No one got injured during the failure, and the company assured that the science payloads and the capsule could be lifted off again. However, the rocket was smashed back into the ground and destroyed after being left without a functioning engine.

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversaw an investigation into the launch failure. It was revealed that the engine nozzle failed after experiencing higher temperatures than the company had initially anticipated.

The FAA concluded the investigation on September 27, 2023, and outlined 21 corrective actions that Blue Origin must implement before returning to flight. To address the issue, the company implemented changes in the combustion chamber's design, improving structural performance under thermal and dynamic loads.