Edward: Heh. Not only would it be foolish for Blue Origin to fly people before this incident is fully understood, it would be crazy for any passenger to agree to go.

And if they try it they will prove to me that Blue Origin is not a serious company.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will oversee the investigation into the anomaly, the agency said in a statement just hours after the mishap occurred. Blue Origin will not be prohibited from flying New Shepard until the investigation is concluded.

It looks as though Blue Origin will be able to fly customers during the investigation.

If you have seen pics of the inside of the BO capsule there is what looks like a table or pedestal in the center.
That is the escape motor and fuel.

Now that it fired, I would like to see the inside of the capsule, so we can see of it caused any issues inside.

I know this was not crewed, but this may put a damper on their tourism business.

That would be a wicked ride on abort. The single thruster in the middle is certainly adequate, but it rolled hard to the side at least once.
With Dragon, assuming everything worked properly, all of the DRACO escape motors would provide better stability.

Without endorsing or rejecting this stance, I do have to say it would have to be an extraordinarily elaborate and expensive vanity project, given the scale of the Blue Origin facilities now emerging down at the Cape. I was just looking at NSF’s latest video review of the Merritt Island factory progress, and it’s just….massive. 650,000 feet of floor space and counting. 200 open positions!
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/space/os-blue-origin-new-glenn-pictures-20220812-lknkfov2hjcpbfx46vhqwz7wfm-photogallery.html

Now, to be sure, history does not lack for very elaborate and expensive vanity projects by very wealthy men. But I wonder if the reality with Blue Origin is not more complicated. That perhaps Bezos really did, at some point, desire Blue Origin to be a serious player in the launch industry; but by throwing far more money than personal engagement at it (the opposite of Elon Musk, over the long term), the results he have perhaps unwittingly ended up producing actually look like a very expensive vanity project at times.

Of course, the secret to Elon’s success is much more than that he spends 40-80 hours on SpaceX in a given week. He clearly knows almost every aspect of the rocket business down to first principles, and he knows how to identify the most talented people and and get the most out of them. It’s hard to see Jeff Bezos being able to acquire all these traits, especially at his time of life.

David Ross wrote, “Which also means Blue Origin will remain a Bezos vanity-project. I’d think twice before investing in Orbital Reef.”

I agree, though we must remember that Blue Origin is only one partner in Orbital Reef, which increasingly appears a very minor partner.

As for Blue Origin itself, in 2016 it looked like it would soon be an orbital rocket company competing head-to-head with SpaceX. Six years later, it has done practically nothing, and in that time three new rocket companies have achieved their first launches, with three more scheduled before the end of this year.

And still we wait for New Glenn, its first launch forever receding into the future.

But yes this is a considerable set back.

I wonder if the experiments data can be used or if they can even be saved.

Maybe they’re building a New Shepard 5, but if they are, I have heard or seen no sign of it.

Richard M. You are correct. I have edited the post, correcting it.

You are unquestionably correct to think that Blue Origin will not be doing suborbital flights now for a considerable time, but it won’t be because they don’t have a booster – this actually wasn’t the booster they use for crewed flights. This was NS booster 3. Booster 4 is what they use for crew.

Berger’s article has a decent summary:

“The company’s first booster, Booster 1, was lost during the April 2015 flight. Booster 2 was retired in October 2016 after performing a successful test of the launch escape system on its fifth and final flight. Booster 3, which launched Monday’s mission, was the company’s oldest operational rocket, making its debut in December 2017. The company has used its newest rocket, Booster 4, exclusively for human launches. It has some modifications from Booster 3 to qualify it as a human-rated rocket.”

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/blue-origin-rocket-explodes-on-ascent-but-spacecraft-escape-system-works-well/

I expect there will be a considerable investigation into this, which will almost certainly prevent any New Shepherd flights until spring of 2023.