Blue Origin capsule stages successful escape after launch, rocket lands upright

The New Shepard’s abort system features a solid rocket motor mounted at the base of the crew capsule to push the spaceship away from the rocket to escape an emergency during launch.

It was the sixth test flight of a reusable New Shepard booster overall – the first test rocket did not survive its landing attempt – and the fifth in a row by the rocket launched Wednesday. Before the test, Blue Origin said it was unlikely to survive the demonstration due to the instability that is introduced by a mid-flight escape of the capsule.

“Sadly, that’s not likely”. Company President Jeff Bezos kept expectations low that the rocket would survive the event, but survive it did, continuing on its way to space as though nothing had happened and returning to land about two miles from its launch site. Those capsules were created to be pulled off by an escape tower mounted on top, while the New Shepard vessel is meant to be pushed off from a motor underneath. Watch the test, which was streamed live, below.

The flight took place at Blue Origin’s test facility in West Texas. At the top of the capsule’s new flight path, it will deploy a trio of drogue parachutes followed by its main parachutes. After deploying flaps to slow down, the main engine restarted and the rocket came down for a ideal landing. Over 70,000 pounds of sheer thrust will be exerted by the capsule’s escape motor, according to Space.com. The test is meant to demonstrate how the capsule, which is created to carry six passengers, could survive a launch accident.

Moreover, unlike previous tests which were created to safely recover the New Shepherd booster itself and demonstrate safe and reliable reusability of the suborbital rocket, this test carries no such objective. The rocket has flown successfully four times previous times: in October 2012, November 2015, January 2016, and April 2016.

The New Shepard launch vehicle and the crew capsule will now be retired, to be placed in a museum.

The aerospace startup led by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos tested the escape system of its space capsule Wednesday in remote west Texas.

NASA no longer provides monetary support to Blue Origin’s rocket development program, but the space agency still has “unfunded” agreements to offer engineering expertise.

Bezos’s competitors are working on similar technology: SpaceX has demonstrated its escape plan on 3D printed models, while Boeing plans to test the escape system on its CST-100 Starliner in 2017.

“That is one hell of a booster”, Bezos wrote on Twitter a few hours after it landed.

New Shepard is created to take passengers on suborbital trips to space and return them to Earth.

New Shepard consists of a reusable rocket and a reusable capsule.

In a real-world emergency, the two-second rocket firing would throw the capsule and its occupants clear of the booster.