Blue Origin completed the first test flight of there New Shepard rocket yesterday, the New Shepard rocket uses their BE-3 engine which recently completed testing. The rocket is design to be fully re-usable, unfortunately they were not able to recover the main stage this time due to a hydraulic issue after the crew capsule was released.
The New Shepard system is design to carry six crew members on a sub-orbital flight and return to earth by parachute. The main stage of the rocket is designed to release the capsule and then propulsively return to the launch pad, below is a quote from Blue Origin’s press release regarding the status of this and future flights.
In fact, if New Shepard had been a traditional expendable vehicle, this would have been a flawless first test flight. Of course one of our goals is reusability, and unfortunately we didn’t get to recover the propulsion module because we lost pressure in our hydraulic system on descent. Fortunately, we’ve already been in work for some time on an improved hydraulic system. Also, assembly of propulsion module serial numbers 2 and 3 is already underway – we’ll be ready to fly again soon.
– Jeff Bezos
As was previous announced by United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Blue Origin they are also working on a more powerful rocket engine called the BE-4 which will be used by the new Vulcan rocket from ULA.
In related news Blue Origin also revamped there Web Site providing a lot more details on the New Shepard System and allow an opportunity to reserve tickets for future flights.
Below is a video of the test
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