The American company Blue Origin plans to launch its Big Shepard rocket on Monday for the first time since the accident that occurred more than a year ago, marking the return of the company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos to space, UNN reports citing AFP.
Details
The launch window from the site in western Texas will open at 8:30 a.m. local time (16:30 a.m. Kyiv time), according to Blue Origin, which plans to broadcast the event live.
This mission, known as NS-24, will not have a crew, but rather equipment for scientific experiments, more than half of which Blue Origin developed with NASA, the publication writes.
During the accident in September 2022, the rocket's upper stage fell to the ground, although the capsule part of the spacecraft descended safely on parachutes. There was no crew on board.
The accident led to an investigation by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which in September 2023 concluded that the cause of the accident was the temperature of the rocket engine, which exceeded the planned temperature.
The FAA has instructed Blue Origin to make changes to allow the resumption of launches, including the design of some engine parts.
On Sunday, the FAA confirmed that it had approved Blue Origin's application to resume flights.
Addendum
Blue Origin uses its New Shepard rocket for space tourism flights from Texas. To date, 31 people, including Bezos himself, have gone on short space flights.
Blue Origin competes in the space tourism market with Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson.
But Blue Origin is also developing a heavy rocket called the New Glenn, which is scheduled to make its first flight next year.