Blue Origin will test New Shepard’s capsule escape system on its next flight, according to a company official.
Brett Alexander, director of business development and strategy at Blue Origin, said Thursday the company would likely lose its booster following the capsule escape test. He said Blue Origin would try to make some changes to increase the odds of recovery, but Alexander warned the booster was not designed to be recovered after capsule escape.
The capsule has a solid rocket motor embedded that Alexander said fires like an airbag, if necessary. He said the test will be performed at a very high dynamic part of the flight. The motor that fires in an escape fires 70,000 pounds of thrust in a two-second burn.
The New Shepard booster has flown four times with the same hardware. The company intentionally failed one string of parachutes on the last flight, June 19, to test the ability of the capsule to land with a parachute mishap. There are three strings of parachutes, nominally, on the flight, and according to video, the capsule landed after two parachute strings deployed.
Blue Origin has taken a rather hands-off approach to the BE-3 engine that powers the New Shepard rocket following use. Alexander said the company didn’t take the engine out of the rocket after the first three flights where the vehicle was landed, but did remove the engine for the most recent flight to make some back-end changes.
One change the company made was a software adjustment for when the engine would relight. Alexander said, originally, the engine re-lit for landing much higher because the company didn’t understand the dynamic among the engine re-lighting, airflow around the vehicle and how fast the engine would ignite. Upon relight, the booster slows to five miles per hour for landing.
Blue Origin spokesman Kenneth Mays said in email the company re-lit the rocket booster for hte November flight at 4,896 feet above ground. For the April test, Mays said Blue Origin restarted the engine for the propulsive landing at 3,600 feet above ground.
Blue Origin, though, has performed “major maintenance” on the booster by touching up the thermal protection system and insulation on the side. Aside from the booster, Alexander said Blue Origin has done little work on the engine, of which the company wants to get 100 reuses from.
The company will perform at least 12 more test flights before putting humans on top of the rocket, Alexander said. Blue Origin, he said, has not started selling tickets and has not yet set a price point because there is no product people can actually buy, and fly, on. Alexander’s remarks came at the Future Space Leaders event on Capitol Hill.