Jeff Bezos’ company postpones 2022 space flight after accident

American space company Blue Origin postponed the launch of the New Shepard rocket, which was due to fly again today for the first time since the accident more than a year ago, to later in the week. The launch, which is expected to mark the big return to the airwaves of the company founded by the billionaire Jeff Bezos, could not take place as planned today “due to a ground systems issue,” Blue Origin said in a message to X.

“We will soon announce a new launch window for this week,” the company clarified. Earlier today, Blue Origin had already announced that it was postponing the launch by an hour due to the low temperatures at the launch site in West Texas. The mission, called NS-24, is unmanned but carries scientific data, half of which was developed with the support of NASA.

This rocket has however been used by the company for space tourism flights and has already carried 31 people on journeys of a few minutes over the final frontier, including Jeff Bezos himself. The September 2022 accident resulted in the crash of the rocket’s propulsion section, which wasn’t even carrying passengers then.

An investigation by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concluded that the accident was caused by a “higher than intended engine operating temperature”.

Source: News Beast

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