Jeff Bezos' Space Tourism Company Aborts Flight After Fiery ‘Anomaly’ During Uncrewed Mission

Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, was forced to abort a spaceflight on Monday, after an uncrewed mission experienced an anomaly about a minute after launch, prompting government officials to ground the company’s New Shepard rocket until an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is complete.

Blue Origin said the mission, known as NS-23, was aborted due to a booster failure in a statement. In response to the emergency command, a capsule carrying scientific experiments separated from the rocket and safely parachuted back to the company’s West Texas launch site, whereas the rocket crashed. Video of the incident shows the rocket momentarily engulfed in flames as the capsule separates and flies away. The rocket can briefly be seen seemingly falling to Earth. 

“This was a payload mission with no astronauts on board,” Blue Origin said in a tweet. “The capsule escape system functioned as designed. More information to come as it is available.”

Though NS-23 did not carry any humans, the New Shepard has flown dozens of tourists to altitudes of more than 62 miles above Earth’s surface. The New Shepard is designed to land vertically back at the launchpad after its suborbital missions so that it can be reused, similar to SpaceX’s Falcon orbital rockets. The condition of the rocket from the aborted flight is unclear.

The launch failure is a setback for Blue Origin, which is based in Kent, Washington, and began launching crewed flights to the edge of space in 2021. The FAA, which oversees aviation and spaceflights, said that no injuries or damage had been reported by the “mishap” that led to the malfunction, but added that the New Shepard is barred from flights until the agency has concluded its work.

"The anomaly that occurred triggered the capsule escape system," the FAA said in a statement, according to CNN. "The capsule landed safely and the booster impacted within the designated hazard area."

"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 continued. "This is standard practice for all mishap investigations."