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Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ private space venture, is ready to fly its New Shepard rocket again after over a year of being grounded. The company this week announced the rocket’s first cargo mission since its booster went up in flames in a liftoff malfunction back in September 2022.Google’s AI Isn’t a Gimmick, It’s the Future | AI UnlockedOn Tuesday, Blue Origin revealed that it’s targeting a launch window that opens on Monday, December 18, for New Shepard’s liftoff. The NS-24 mission will carry 33 science and research…

During a test firing in late June, a Blue Origin rocket engine exploded at the company’s West Texas facility in what could be another major setback for the launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket.William Shatner on Jeff BezosBlue Origin’s BE-4 engine exploded about 10 seconds into the test on June 30, destroying the engine and heavily damaging the test stand infrastructure, CNBC reported based on anonymous sources familiar with the matter. “No personnel were injured and we are currently assessing root cause,” a Blue Origin…

Months after Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster went up in flames, the company released a report pinpointing the cause of the rocket anomaly that halted its operations.Following its investigations into the rocket failure, Blue Origin identified a “thermo-structural failure of the engine nozzle” as the reason why its uncrewed New Shepard rocket suffered a failure in September 2022, the company wrote in a press release on Friday. The nozzle on the booster’s engine overheated as a result of increased temperatures that caused…

Launch of New Shepard on July 20, 2021. Photo: Tony Gutierrez (AP)Blue Origin’s chief architect, Gary Lai, provided an update Tuesday on the investigation into the failed launch of the company’s New Shepard rocket in September of last year. Troublingly, it’s what he didn’t say about the ongoing investigation that’s giving us cause for concern.I’d like to be able to tell you the reason for the September 12 launch failure and when Blue Origin’s suborbital rocket will fly again, but I can’t. “We are investigating that…

Sanchez is an experienced pilot and will lead the all-women crew aboard the currently grounded New Shepard sometime next year. Image: Kevin Winter (Getty Images)Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is currently grounded, but that’s not stopping the Jeff Bezos-led company from making plans. A future flight in 2024 will feature an all-women crew led by Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos’ partner Lauren Sánchez.Sánchez spilled the beans on the flight in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published this week. Sánchez has been a…

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos during a post-launch briefing on July 20, 2021.Photo: Tony Gutierrez (AP)Suborbital flights of Blue Origin’s space tourism rocket are suspended pending a Federal Aviation Administrationreview of Monday’s in-flight anomaly. No passengers were aboard at the time, but the apparent booster failure triggered the vehicle’s capsule escape system. 02:49Guess How Much Crypto's Been Stolen Lately? Part 2Today 10:45AMThe apparent booster failure happened 65 seconds into Blue Origin’s NS-23 mission,…

Video showing the booster failure during the NS-23 mission. Gif: Blue Origin/GizmodoAn uncrewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket ended in failure shortly after liftoff on Monday morning from Launch Site One in West Texas. The capsule, packed with scientific and technological payloads, managed to survive an apparent booster malfunction, with the launch escape system successfully working as designed. Update: 5:16 p.m. ET: Blue Origin tweeted an update at 2:17 p.m. ET, saying the booster “impacted the…