Blue Origin NS-23 launch failure

[+Bino-viewer]

Hi folks,

 

Link to a video here from another Blue Origin 'New Shepherd' flight that didn't go well unfortunately.

 

I wasn't actually aware there were flying today : it was an unmanned launch carrying science experiments from local students.

Just over a minute into the flight, they had main booster failure, which then caught fire, at which point ground control aborted,

and deployed the emergency capsule escape system.

 

This has been successfully tested before, so today it proved it's worth in a real failure situation.

The capsule then released its parachutes and landed safely, but with a bit of a bump apparently.

 

Sadly the failed booster rocket was lost. It crashed and blew up on landing, probably with a large amount of propellent still inside.

I've looked for footage of this, but can't find any online, although they probably have not released any, pending their forthcoming investigation.

Just goes to show, rockets are dangerous and unpredictable things. Blue Origin have had over 20 faultless launches so far, but even what seems

to be a very reliable launch vehicle, it can have something go wrong unexpectedly.

Video below, with its rather naff commentary.

Lets hope they can sort out whatever went wrong. A failure is not a failure if you learn from it.

 

 

[BAZ]

That would have been a squeaky bum moment had it been crewed. It seemed to have problems just as they throttled back, I guess they will release enough info to satisfy the public.

[+Bino-viewer]

15 hours ago, BAZ said:

That would have been a squeaky bum moment had it been crewed. It seemed to have problems just as they throttled back, I guess they will release enough info to satisfy the public.

 

......and maybe a sore head on landing.

They have a small retro rocket that fires very briefly just before landing to cushion it, but i'm not sure if it worked properly after the

emergency capsule escape had done its thing. If it hadn't it would have hit the ground at 15mph. Ouch !