Inspired by safety protocols put in place for NASA’s Apollo and Discovery programs, the system is capable of rapidly separating the crew compartment from the main body of the spacecraft when critical problems are spotted. “It’s a very challenging system to build, design, confirm, evaluate — all of these things. It is the reason I am comfortable letting anyone go on New Shepard,” Jeff Bezos explained.
He added that Blue Origin designed the booster “as safe and reliable as we can make it,” but it’s not perfect. Just over a year ago, an uncrewed New Shepard rocket experienced a malfunction that caused the booster to crash. Notably, the dozens of scientific experiments it was carrying returned safely when the emergency escape system triggered in time. It was later revealed that a nozzle in the main engine experienced a structural failure due to unprecedented thermal stress.
The Crew Capsule escape system worked “as designed,” Blue Origin said in its official statement. The mishap was quite significant, and it was only mid-way through December 2023 that Blue Origin announced plans to resume commercial space flights after a long spell of investigations and engineering work. But Bezos maintains utmost trust in the safety of Blue Origin missions, and especially the reliability of its emergency escape system.”If I am not ready to go, then I wouldn’t want anyone to go,” he said, talking about his trip aboard the New Shepard to the edge of space in 2021.
