Blue Origin blames overheating in the engine for NS-23 failure, FAA investigation remains open

Last September, Blue Origin suffered an inflight failure of an uncrewed New Shepard rocket. Friday, the company released its findings from its investigation into the failure.

Failure pinpointed to engine nozzle

According to Blue Origin’s investigation, the cause of the failure was pinpointed as structural fatigue failure on the BE-3PM engine nozzle. This failure burned a hole into the side of the engine bell and created a sideways thrust, pushing the booster off center. This triggered the abort system on the New Shepard capsule, saving the payloads from destruction.

Initially, it didn’t sound like Blue Origin would release any report on the NS-23 failure. However, VP of Commercial Sales Ariane Cornell said on a panel at the Satellite 2023 conference that “I’m not sure if we’re going to release the details” and that they would have to “coordinate with the FAA.”

Happy to see they did end up releasing details on what caused the failure; however, we got very little info on how Blue Origin is fixing the problem. The press release states, “Blue Origin is implementing corrective actions.” Those actions include design changes and tweaks to the parameters, probably very deep into ITAR and proprietary land, so I’ll give them a pass this time.

The exciting part? Blue Origin will return to launching New Shepard soon and refly NS-23’s payloads, something you wouldn’t be able to do on any other suborbital launch failure. No word on when, but the company is looking to do it by the end of the year.

FAA’s investigation is still open however

The FAA, which oversees all commercial spaceflight, made a statement after Blue Origin’s announcement that its investigation is still ongoing.

The FAA-required investigation into the Sept. 12, 2022, Blue Origin NS-23 launch mishap remains open. The agency is currently reviewing the company’s submission of its mishap report. FAA approval is required to close the investigation and for the New Shepard System to return to flight.

This sounds more like red tape to get the FAA final okay on Blue Origin’s failure reasoning before allowing it to fly again. FAA oversight happens everywhere in spaceflight. Currently, SpaceX is waiting on FAA approval for a launch license for the first orbital launch of its Starship rocket.

Both Blue Origin and SpaceX should hopefully get the green light from the FAA to continue flights in the company weeks, months, quarters, or whatever timelines they use in Washington.