Progress in failure: Watch Blue Origin rocket's capsule save itself after its booster dies

Blue Origin's fourth orbital mission of this year ended in failure as the New Shepard booster failed to take the payload carrying capsule to the intended altitude. Named New Shepard-23, the mission lifted off at 7:52 pm IST from West Texas but soon met its fiery conclusion due to a faulty engine on the booster. The company later confirmed that the mission failed but the capsule made a safe landing.

Escape system saves the day for Blue Origin

The New Shepard capsule was carrying 36 science experiments as payload, 18 of which were developed through funding by NASA. Thanks to the capsule's Emergency Escape System, the payload remained safe after the incident as the spacecraft rocketed away from the dead booster. As the name suggests, this system is activated when it senses any anomaly in the first stage booster and automatically separates to prevent any damage to the upper stage.

Blue Origin even shared a short clip of the capsule jettisoning away and the booster dropped out of the frame. The incident occurred around one minute five seconds after the launch when the rocket was at an altitude of roughly 30,000 feet (9,000 meters).

In a tweet later, the company confirmed that the booster crashed on Earth near the launch site in West Texas. "During today’s flight, the capsule escape system successfully separated the capsule from the booster. The booster impacted the ground. There are no reported injuries; all personnel have been accounted for", Blue Origin's tweet read. 

Notably, the NS-23 mission was an uncrewed one and the incident resulted in the unscheduled testing of the escape system. Blue Origin further confirmed that the system worked exactly as designed, meaning the capsule would have been safe even with people on board. Notably, this was the second incident of mission failure for Bezos' firm after the one during its debut flight in April 2015. Fast forward to 2022, Blue Origin has launched 150 payloads and 36 humans to space.