What’s the Deal With Bezos’s Grounded Rocket?

upstart writes:

It's been six months since Blue Origin's New Shepard failed during launch:

It's been six months since Blue Origin's New Shepard failed during launch, yet virtually nothing is known about the anomaly or when the rocket might fly again.

Blue Origin's chief architect, Gary Lai, provided an update Tuesday on the investigation into the failed launch of the company's New Shepard rocket in September of last year. Troublingly, it's what he didn't say about the ongoing investigation that's giving us cause for concern.

I'd like to be able to tell you the reason for the September 12 launch failure and when Blue Origin's suborbital rocket will fly again, but I can't.

"We are investigating that anomaly now, the cause of it," Lai told reporters after completing his talk at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference being held in Broomfield, Colorado, SpaceNews reports. "We will get to the bottom of it." To which he added: "I can't talk about specific timelines or plans for when we will resolve that situation other than to say that we fully intend to be back in business as soon as we are ready."

No one was injured during the failed NS-23 mission, which took off from Launch Site One in West Texas. The uncrewed New Shepard was carrying scientific instruments to suborbital space, but the rocket never reached its target. Something happened 65 seconds into the launch that caused New Shepard's abort system to engage, jettisoning the capsule away from the failing, fiery booster. The capsule performed a parachute-assisted landing, but the booster, instead of performing its usual vertical landing, was destroyed after crashing onto the surface.

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