Blue Origin now has an explanation for the propellant failure that disrupted a New Shepard flight last September. Jeff Bezos’ company has certain that a “thermostructural failure” in the nozzle of the NS-23 rocket motor was to blame. Nozzle operating temperatures rose higher than expected following changes to the cooling system design, creating fatigue that misaligned the thrust and activated the crew capsule exhaust system.
Engineers are already taking “corrective action” that includes redesigning the combustion chamber and operating conditions. Blue Origin also modified the design of the mouthpiece to improve its structural integrity. The capsule was undamaged and will fly again, Blue Origin says.
The company says it hopes to resume flights “soon” but has not provided an exact date. He intends to restart operations by re-flying the research payload from the aborted mission. The Federal Aviation Administration has to accept the incident findings before Blue Origin can move forward.
There is a lot of pressure on Blue Origin to address the issues. The company recently won a contract from NASA to fly a science mission to Mars using its yet-to-launch New Glenn rocket, and has been pushing for a lunar landing deal. The sooner Blue Origin can prove its rockets are reliable, the sooner it can secure customers including governments and space tourists.
The rivals face their own problems. Relativity Space’s first 3D-printed rocket failed to reach orbit earlier this month. Meanwhile, SpaceX has yet to successfully fire all of Starship’s engines at the same time. That’s not including past problems like Rocket Lab setbacks. Private spaceflight is still tough, and Blue Origin is just the latest to illustrate that fact.
