Yesterday, Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle ventured out on its first developmental test flight. The Jeff Bezos-founded organization reports that the launch was a success—though it didn’t manage to recover the propulsion module as it hoped.
The vehicle’s 110,000-lbf thrust liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen BE-3 engine apparently “worked flawlessly” during the test according to Bezos, with guidance, navigation, control and separation all working as planned. “Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return,” he adds.
Sadly, one of the main goals of Blue Origin is re-use, so the failure on that front is a shame. Maybe next time? [Blue Origin]
