(Washington) The American space company Blue Origin announced Tuesday that it was planning a launch of its New Shepard rocket next week, more than a year after an accident that grounded it.
“We are targeting a firing window that opens on December 18,” the company wrote on X, specifying that the mission would carry scientific experiments.
The accident, which occurred in September 2022, resulted in the crash of the rocket’s propulsion stage, which was not then carrying passengers.
It triggered the opening of an investigation by the American air regulator (FAA), concluded in September 2023. The agency then requested changes from the space company before flights could resume.
“We expect to receive authorization for our amended license,” a Blue Origin spokeswoman told AFP on Tuesday.
The New Shepard rocket is notably used by Blue Origin for space tourism flights from Texas.
It has already taken around thirty people for trips of a few minutes over the final frontier, including the founder of the company Jeff Bezos himself.
The rocket is made up of a propulsion stage and, at its top, the capsule carrying its cargo.
During the mission named NS-23, the capsule’s automatic ejection system was triggered, and it fell to the ground, slowed by its parachutes.
The main stage had been destroyed by hitting the ground, instead of landing in a controlled manner for reuse, as usual.
All of the debris had “landed in the designated hazard area,” the FAA noted in September.
Blue Origin competes in the niche of short space tourism flights with Virgin Galactic, a company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson.
