Blue Origin Rocket Owned by Jeff Bezos Explodes After Takeoff

VIVA – The launched of Blue Origin space rocket from Texas, the United States on Monday, September 12, 2022, failed because of an anomaly. The rocket exploded shortly after takeoff.

The company, owned by Amazon maestro Jeff Bezos, has suspended suborbital tourist flights pending a government investigation, as quoted from the Russian Today website on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.

About a minute and four seconds after Monday's launch, the New Shepard's thrusters flashed orange and then exploded.

Avoiding destruction, the capsule above fell back from a height of 8.8 kilometers to land on the ground with the aid of a parachute.

"It appears we had an anomaly with today's flight. This was not planned and we don't have any details yet, but our crew capsule managed to escape," the representative of Blue Origin, Erika Wagner remarked after the explosion. 

The SpaceX competitor said the problem occurred at Launch Site One in West Texas. This is a payload mission with no astronauts on board. The capsule release system works as designed.

"The mission, dubbed NS-23, carried 36 payloads from academia, research institutes, and students around the world," Blue Origin remarked.

Half of it was sponsored by the Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Two experiments attached to the booster were destroyed in the explosion.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident and the capsule carrying about three dozen trials was safely released.

It was the ninth launch of a special booster and capsule, a bit different from what Blue Origin used for the 'tourist' suborbital journey that Bezos and actor William Shatner had once used to the limits of outer space.

So far, Blue Origin has carried 31 people on New Shepard rockets, the most recent being in August.

All launches have been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into the explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

The launch of Monday yesterday was delayed by nearly two weeks because of the bad weather. The Blue Origin crash comes about a week after NASA canceled the launch of its Artemis 1 Moon mission due to a fuel leak.