Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space company, had to abort its return-to-flight mission with the suborbital New Shepard rocket in Texas due to a ground system issue encountered during liftoff preparations. The company announced on social media that they were “scrubbing #NS24 today due to a ground system issue the team is troubleshooting.”
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The rocket was scheduled to launch at 9:30 a.m. CT for the first time since a mission failure last year led to a 15-month grounding.
Blue Origin
The NS24 mission aimed to carry 33 research experiments, with no human passengers, on a suborbital trip to the edge of space. The ground system issue typically relates to a problem with the rocket’s launch pad rather than the rocket itself.
Blue Origin later stated that it would target Tuesday at 10:37 a.m. CT for the next launch attempt. The last New Shepard mission in early 2022 experienced a mid-flight failure due to a “structural failure” in the rocket’s engine nozzle caused by excessive heat from the combustion chamber.
As a result of the mishap, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), responsible for overseeing investigations into incidents involving private rocket companies, mandated that Blue Origin redesign New Shepard’s engine and implement 20 other fixes before allowing a return to flight.
This delay highlights the challenges and rigorous safety protocols involved in spaceflight operations, especially after encountering technical issues.
