Blue Origin New Shepard craft
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship stands on its launch pad for a test flight in June. (Credit: Blue Origin file)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has to pass up a historic date for its next flight test, due to unacceptable weather.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship had been due to blast off from the company’s test range in West Texas on Tuesday, Oct. 4, which is the 59th anniversary of the Sputnik launch that ushered in the Space Age.

However, the company said today that the flight (and the live webcast that goes with it) had to be rescheduled for Wednesday:

The webcast will be available via Blue Origin’s website, and most likely via the company’s YouTube channel as well. Last time around, in June, the live coverage started about a half-hour before launch.

This New Shepard has made four successful uncrewed flights to space and back over the past year, but it’s not likely to survive this go-round intact. The crew capsule (which doesn’t carry any crew for these tests) will be programmed to light up its solid-rocket escape system about 45 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of 16,000 feet, when the aerodynamic stresses on the craft are at their peak.

Simulations suggest that the firing will deliver a heavy blow to the booster rocket below, most likely breaking it apart. The capsule, meanwhile, should zoom out of harm’s way and descend back to the range safely at the end of its parachutes.

 

This week’s test is meant to verify that the escape system will work properly if it’s needed during a future flight with passengers aboard.

There’s a slight chance that the booster will stay in one piece and make a safe vertical landing, as it has in the past. In any case, the capsule and whatever’s left of the booster will be retired to a museum or museums to be named later. A brand-new New Shepard, manufactured at Blue Origin’s headquarters south of Seattle, would make its debut for the flight test that follows this one.

If Blue Origin’s schedule proceeds according to plan, the spacecraft would start carrying people who are involved in the test program next year, and take on paying passengers in 2018. Blue Origin hasn’t yet set the ticket price and it isn’t taking reservations, but the company has set up a mailing list for updates.

Join the gang at the GeekWire Summit for a New Shepard watch party starting at 7:45 a.m. PT Wednesday, hosted by aerospace and science editor Alan Boyle.

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