Blue Origin's New Shepard grounded until FAA completes mishap investigation
during an uncrewed flight from West Texas on Monday morning . The vehicle's capsule successfully engaged its emergency abort system and ended up landing safely under parachutes, but the booster crashed hard back to Earth.
The mishap caused no injuries and no damage to public property, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration , which licenses commercial space launches.is working to understand what caused Monday's accident, and the FAA is overseeing the investigation. New Shepard won't fly again until that investigation is completed to the FAA's satisfaction.
"Before the New Shepard vehicle can return to flight, the FAA will determine whether any system, process or procedure related to the mishap affected public safety," the agency wrote in a statement Monday,New Shepard is a reusable vehicle designed to take people and cargo on brief trips to suborbital space. It consists of a first-stage booster and a capsule.
Monday's mission was the 23rd overall for the New Shepard program and the 17th to fly without any people onboard. The failure occurred about 1 minute and 4 seconds into flight, when the vehicle was less than 30,000 feet above Earth.