The failure of a Blue Origin rocket during an uncrewed launch this month has members of Congress calling for more transparency from the FAA.
One of Blue Origin's New Shepard rockets was destroyed in a failed launch on September 12th. The capsule parachuted back to Earth after being separated from the doomed booster. The FAA and Blue Origin have not released any information about the accident.
The leaders of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics sent a letter to the FAA asking for more transparency since Blue Origin is using New Shepard rockets to launch passengers on suborbital trips.
The failure of New Shepard reminded people that spaceflight is hard.
No humans were on the New Shepard 23 (NS-23) mission and the abort system worked as designed. The letter was written by subcommittee chairman Don Beyer (D-VA) and ranking member Brian Babin (R-TX). On a different day with a different mission, the vehicle's anomalies could have put people in danger.
The New Shepard was launched by Blue Origin at 10:27 a.m. There are 18 funded by NASA that will be carried to suborbital space. 1 minute and 5 seconds into the flight there was a problem with the rocket. The New Shepard rocket had an issue that caused its abort system to malfunction, and it ejected its capsule before it was destroyed.
The capsule escaped from the booster during today's flight. The booster flew into the air. All personnel have been accounted for and there are no reported injuries. Few details have been released since that time.
The oversight role on commercial spaceflight is taken seriously by subcommittee members.
The subcommittee should be briefed within 10 days of the letter.
The failure of the New Shepard launch was Blue Origin's 23rd mission and the second in-flight abnormality since flight began. In 2015, the New Shepard booster crashed, but its uncrewed capsule successfully reached suborbital space and returned safely.
There have not been any anomalies on the flights. Six passenger flights have been launched by the company in the last two years.
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