Blue Origin launch aborted after mid-flight anomaly

Yahoo ^ | 9/22/2022 | NA

[KnightAstronomer1]

Blue Origin launched its 23rd New Shepard rocket mission this morning, featuring science payloads designed for experimentation. The mission needed early, however, after it was aborted during the first ascent stage of the rocket, prompting the abort process to take over and firing the parachutes on the capsule, which drifted back to Earth shortly after take-off.

This was not a crewed mission, so there was no one on board the capsule, though it is the same vehicle that the company uses for its private spaceflight tourist missions. This marks the first time ever that Blue Origin has encountered a problem with the New Shepard spacecraft during a flight, in nearly two dozen missions.

[2001convSVT]

Looks like a turbo pump failure during max-q throttle down. An imbalance in combustion chamber pressure of the fuel and oxygen can cause parts to fail and flying off. The brown color of the flames is a telling signature of a parts failure.

[x]

It's a shame that Uncle Walter died before he could get his hands on the Blue Origin penis rocket model ...

[Paul R.]

Direct You Tube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v09RCNChe-w

Beware, though. The aggressive “sales pitch” (or maybe “computer game”, as one commenter wrote) vocal tone of the announcer is pretty darn irritating.

[cgbg]

At a minimum they will be visiting with their attorney to make sure their Wills and Trusts are up to date.

;-)

[Paul R.]

Yeah, I saw that and was wondering how Bill Shatner's back would do...

FWIW, SpaceX has another launch this evening. Elon is throwing Starlink sats up at a heck of a pace, now.