If at first, your space endeavors face setbacks, take to the skies once more—this appears to be the principle guiding Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. The company has declared its intention to resume space flights after a hiatus of over a year, announcing a potential launch window starting as early as Monday. The decision comes in the wake of an engine failure experienced by the New Shepard rocket in September 2022.
Blue Origin conveyed its plans on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “We’re targeting a launch window that opens on December 18 for our next New Shepard payload mission. #NS24 will carry 33 science and research payloads as well as 38,000 @clubforfuture postcards to space. #FortheBenefitofEarth.”
While the upcoming flight won’t include human passengers, successful missions may pave the way for future journeys with people onboard. New Shepard’s inaugural manned flight took place in 2021, with Jeff Bezos among the crew. Subsequently, the rocket completed five other crewed missions, featuring notable personalities like actor William Shatner and TV personality Michael Strahan.
Towards the end of the previous year, New Shepard encountered a setback just a minute after liftoff from a Blue Origin facility in West Texas. Flames were visible from its single BE-3 engine, prompting the activation of an emergency abort system. Although the rocket and its 36 payloads landed safely with parachutes, the booster couldn’t be reused and crashed.
Blue Origin, under the oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration, investigated the incident. In March, the company released a statement attributing the failure to an engine nozzle experiencing temperatures beyond the anticipated values. Blue Origin confirmed it was implementing design changes and aimed to resume flights “soon.”
In addition to New Shepard, Blue Origin is developing the larger and more powerful New Glenn rocket. Once completed, New Glenn is expected to achieve orbit and compete for government and commercial contracts. However, the development of New Glenn has faced repeated delays, leading Amazon, also owned by Bezos and set to utilize Blue Origin, to collaborate with Elon Musk’s SpaceX instead.
In the ongoing quest for space dominance, Blue Origin appears to be working to close the gap.
