The goal of today’s uncrewed mission was to test the scenario in which one parachute fails to deploy during the descent of the New Shepard crew capsule.
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets are flying commercial and space agency payloads to orbit before coming back in for a landing, while Blue Origin’s New Shepard is still in the early stages of development, though according to the webcast announcers, it only takes a few thousand dollars to refurbish the booster for each launch.
New Shepard’s booster made a pinpoint landing near its launch site 8 minutes after liftoff, with the capsule touching down a minute lander after descending to Earth under two parachutes. But the real action on this test was to see what happened to the crew capsule it was carrying.
Blue Origin made its first successful launch and landing in November 2015. This time the primary objective is determining whether the crew vehicle can land with one of its three parachutes intentionally failing. But it’s different now because this is the first time that New Origin is broadcasting the launch live – the company isn’t showing the footage after the fact.
It was not immediately clear if the braking rockets fired as planned an instant before landing, but after the dust settled, the capsule appeared to be in good shape in long-range camera views. The spacecraft also has what is called a “crushable structure” that helps absorb some of the blow of landing.
A larger chute was released seconds before the capsule landed, stabilizing it. A second before touchdown, rocket thrusters on the capsule were activated to cushion the landing. Not only will the Blue Shepard test its rocket, it will test its capsule that is expected to carry humans to suborbital space and back. Blue Origin will still need to analyze the capsule to determine exactly how well it performed, but by today’s first appearances everything went perfectly.
During the live webcast before the launch, Blue Origin explained that if there were any issues or anomalies detected on the crew capsule, all three parachutes would deploy and the one-failed parachute test would be aborted. The shift to live coverage signals that Blue Origin is becoming more open about its progress.
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The capsule used in these initial tests, however, does not have any windows (they’re only painted on), but the next iteration of the capsule will include windows that make up as much as 1/3 of the capsule surface area. Instead, the launch system is built to fly up to six people into suborbital space, with the capsule returning to Earth under parachutes while its booster lands vertically using the same BE-3 rocket engine it uses for launch.
