NS-23 capsule lands following the failure of its booster on Sept. 12, 2022.
More than 15 months after a New Shepard booster failed during ascent, Blue Origin plans to resume flights of its reusable suborbital vehicle, with liftoff set for Dec. 18, the company said on Dec. 12.
An uncrewed New Shepard booster failed about 1 min. after liftoff on Sept. 12, 2022, providing an unplanned demonstration of the launch abort system. The capsule safely parachuted back to the ground.
Blue Origin in March said the NS-23 accident was caused by a thermo-structural failure of the engine nozzle and that it expected to refly the payloads aboard the mission “soon.” The company did not say why it has taken another nine months to return to flight.
The nozzle’s structural fatigue was caused by “operational temperatures that exceeded the expected and analyzed values of the nozzle material,” Blue Origin said in March.
Tests show the nozzle had operated at hotter temperatures than in previous design configurations. “Forensic evaluation of the recovered nozzle fragments also showed clear evidence of thermal damage and hot streaks resulting from increased operating temperatures. The fatigue location on the flight nozzle is aligned with a persistent hot streak identified during the investigation,” the company said.
A team investigating the accident determined design changes made to the engine’s boundary layer cooling system accounted for an increase in nozzle heating and the presence of the hot streaks.
Blue Origin said it changed the design of the combustion chamber and operating parameters to reduce the engine nozzle bulk and hot-streak temperatures. “Additional design changes to the nozzle have improved structural performance under thermal and dynamic loads,” it added.
A launch time for NS-24, which will carry 33 science and research payloads, was not released.
New Shepard flies from Blue Origin’s private spaceport in West Texas.
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