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Blue Origin is finally returning to flight.
On Tuesday the corporate announced, via the social media site X, that its Recent Shepard spacecraft would launch no sooner than next Monday.
“We’re targeting a launch window that opens on Dec. 18 for our next Recent Shepard payload mission,” the corporate stated. “#NS24 will carry 33 science and research payloads in addition to 38,000 @clubforfuture postcards to space.”
The uncrewed Recent Shepard 24 test flight will refly the science payloads that were aboard the Recent Shepard 23 flight, which experienced an engine nozzle failure at 1 minute and 4 seconds following liftoff in September 2022. The capsule’s emergency escape system performed as intended, rapidly pulling the spacecraft away from the disintegrating rocket and allowing Blue Origin to get well the payloads flown for NASA and other customers.
Blue Origin finished its accident evaluation this spring and implemented a fix to the issue, including design changes to the BE-3 engine combustion chamber. In May, the corporate said it planned to return to flight “soon.” Then, in September, the Federal Aviation Administration closed its mishap investigation.
The corporate originally targeted an uncrewed return-to-flight mission in early October; nevertheless, two sources told Ars that the extra two-month delay was brought on by a difficulty with certifying an engine part intended for flight.
A brand new rocket?
Blue Origin has not specified which rocket and spacecraft can be flying next week from its launch site in West Texas, near the town of Van Horn. The corporate’s first Recent Shepard rocket, Booster 1, was lost during an April 2015 flight. Booster 2 was retired in October 2016 after performing a successful test of the launch escape system on its fifth and final flight. Booster 3, which was lost through the NS-23 mission in September, was the corporate’s oldest operational rocket, making its debut in December 2017.
The corporate has used its newest rocket, Booster 4, exclusively for human launches on Recent Shepard. This rocket has some modifications from Booster 3 to qualify it as a human-rated rocket. The corporate has also built a fifth booster which may be making next Monday’s flight.
Tuesday’s announcement got here amid a tidal wave of changes in leadership at Blue Origin this month, with several high-profile retirements and the arrival of its recent chief executive, who has come to the corporate from Amazon, Dave Limp. He replaced Bob Smith, who had an uneven tenure as leader of Blue Origin. As Ars reported last month, Limp is probably going evaluating the long-term prospects of Recent Shepard, which stays removed from breaking even financially.
The corporate may pivot toward its larger projects, including the Recent Glenn rocket and lunar lander for the Artemis program, which have a greater probability of raising significant revenue. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has funded Blue Origin out of his pocket, providing as much as $2 billion a 12 months in operating expenses.
Nevertheless, given the announcement of Recent Shepard’s return to flight, it’s clear that Blue Origin is not moving entirely away from Recent Shepard just yet.