Blue Origin is scheduled to launch another crew of customers to the edge of space and back this morning. Six passengers will ride to space inside Blue Origin's New Shepard tourist rocket, the largest group the company has ever sent up on one flight.
This flight is a bit unusual because of that. The FAA investigation into the safety of Blue Origin's rockets came to an inscrutable conclusion.
Celebrity guests and paying spaceflight enthusiasts are on board. The eldest daughter of Alan Shepard, who was the first American in space, will be flying along with Michael Strahan, a host for Good Morning America. They didn't pay for their seats because they are considered guests. Evan Dick, an investor, Lane Bess, the founder of Bess Ventures, and Bess' son are paying customers. Dylan Taylor is an investor in the spaceflight industry.
It will be interesting to see how the crew fares.
Blue Origin has launched people to the edge of space before from its test facility in Texas. Blue Origin made sure to have a star on board for all three missions. The first flight of the company carried Bezos, as well as legendary female aviators, while the second flight carried William Shatner, best known for playing Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek. Blue Origin only flew four crews for the first two flights. Even with a small complement of people, the interior of the crew cabin got crowded. It will be interesting to see how the crew of six fare, which is the maximum number of people the capsule is supposed to hold.
Noupscale is a file on thechorusasset.com.
New Shepard's passenger seats have Michael Strahan training in them.
The image is of Blue Origin.
The FAA closed an investigation into Blue Origin without finding any significant issues. The FAA began looking into the company in October after 21 current and former employees at Blue Origin wrote about a culture of rampant sexual harassment and safety concerns with the company's rockets. According to the essay penned by former Blue Origin head of employee communications, employees are too scared to speak about safety violations because of fear of being retaliated against.
An engineer who signed on to the essay stated that Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far. Many of the authors of the essay say they wouldn't fly on a Blue Origin vehicle.
The FAA found no specific safety issues.
The FAA said it was reviewing the information after the essay came out. CNN reported on Friday that the investigation is over, and the FAA confirmed it to The Verge. The FAA found no specific safety issues after investigating allegations against the company, according to Steven Kulm, a public affairs specialist at the FAA. Linda Mills, the vice president for communications at Blue Origin, said that the FAA statement was accurate.
The FAA representatives told Abrams that the agency was unable to conduct a thorough investigation because no additional engineering or safety experts from Blue Origin came forward to discuss issues that were raised in the letter. The emails show that FAA investigators put a lot of pressure on her to speak up. Email exchanges between Blue Origin employees and a memo written by a departing employee about safety concerns were some of the information passed along byAbrams. She got nearly three people to give written statements, but they backed out over fears of their identities being disclosed, according to The Verge. There are no statutes in place to protect whistle blowers at space companies, so those who came forward could not be guaranteed protection, according to an email from the FAA.
The FAA sent a copy of its email to Abrams on December 6th.
It has been several weeks since we last spoke to you, and although you did everything you could to try and convince your group to come forward, no technical experts have reached out to us or provided any specific documentation regarding the safety allegations. There is no federal statute that protects employees of commercial space companies from being retaliated against for reporting safety issues. The protections available to commercial aviation industry whistleblowers are vastly different. This is believed to be a factor in the inability to pursue this investigation further.
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The FAA couldn't investigate this matter in depth because they couldn't substantiate the safety concerns described in the document you provided. No further actions can be recommended.
Thanks to the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act passed in 2015, the commercial space industry has little federal oversight regarding safety. The FAA and other federal agencies can't put safety regulations on the commercial space industry until at least 2023. The law was created to allow the space industry to continue to grow and innovate without having to worry about regulations. The FAA is only responsible for making sure that a rocket launch won't hurt people or property on the ground. The agency can't tell space companies how to make their vehicles safer. Commercial space tourists agree that the trip they are taking is inherently dangerous and risky.
The company stood by its culture after the original essay was published. Blue Origin does not tolerate discrimination or harassment. Blue Origin provides numerous avenues for employees, including a hotline, and will investigate any new claims of wrongdoing.
Blue Origin relies on its New Shepard rocket to get passengers to the edge of space and back. The passengers are in a crew cabin with large windows and reclined seats on top of the vehicle. Once the rocket reaches a certain altitude, the cabin separates from the top of the rocket, allowing the riders to experience a few moments of weightlessness. The capsule and the rocket come back to Earth, with the rocket upright and the capsule gently landing.
Most people think that New Shepard is above the boundary to space when it flies to an altitude of 62 miles up. All passengers should be given commercial astronaut wings by the FAA when they return to Earth. People who fly above 50 miles on a commercial spaceship have been given these wings. The FAA will end this practice by the end of the year and will only list future commercial tourists and flyers on the agency website. This crew may be the last one to get wings.
The New Shepard launch is scheduled to take place this morning at 9:45AM at Blue Origin's launch site in Van Horn. 90 minutes before the launch, Blue Origin will begin live coverage.
