An overheated rocket engine was to blame for last year’s Blue Origin launch failure, resulting in grounded flights for the last six months.
During the September flight, as the New Shepard rocket started veering off course just a minute in, the escape system was triggered and the capsule catapulted off and parachuted to safety.
“The direct cause of the NS-23 mishap was a thermo-structural failure of the engine nozzle,” the spaceflight company said in a Friday release. “The resulting thrust misalignment properly triggered the crew capsule escape system, which functioned as designed throughout the flight.”
While the capsule and its payloads were brought to a safe landing at Launch Site One with no damage, the rocket came crashing down.
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The wreckage was confined to the designated keep-out zone.
“As part of the response to the crew capsule escape, the Propulsion Module commanded shutdown of the BE-3PM engine and followed an unpowered trajectory to impact within the defined flight safety analysis prediction, resulting in no danger to human life or property,” Blue Origin explained.
The company noted that no one was hurt and that property on the ground was not damaged.
Furthermore, all critical flight hardware was recovered within days.
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Upon an investigation conducted with oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and NASA members, the Jeff Bezos-owned company found that a design change to the engine’s boundary layer cooling system led to the problem.
Blue Origin said that the problem is being corrected, and that it is implementing additional design changes to improve structural performance.
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“Blue Origin expects to return to flight soon, with a re-flight of the NS-23 payloads,” Blue Origin said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.