Blue Origin to Livestream Sunday's New Shepard Test Launch – UPDATE
UPDATE, June 19, 2016: The test was successfully conducted.
ORIGINAL STORY, June 17, 2016: Blue Origin will conduct another test launch of its reusable New Shepard rocket on Sunday, June 19, 2016. The often secretive company, owned and headed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, not only announced this test in advance, but will livestream it on the Internet.
The test was originally scheduled for today (June 17), but was delayed because of a technical issue. It is now scheduled for 10:15 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Sunday; the webcast will be available on Blue Origin’s website beginning at 9:45 am EDT.
New Shepard is designed to take passengers on suborbital spaceflights and not only return them to Earth, but the rocket as well. The passengers will ride inside a capsule that is ejected from the rocket during its descent and lands using parachutes. The purpose of this test is to determine if the capsule could land successfully if one of its three parachute strings fails. No one will be aboard this flight.
Bezos emphasized in a tweet that this one-chute-out test is a demonstration flight and “anything can happen.”
Look for one-chute-out test starting about 7 minutes into flight + continue pushing envelope on booster. #GradatimFerociter
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 17, 2016
And of course – development test flight – anything can happen. #GradatimFerociter
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 17, 2016
This is the fourth flight of the same New Shepard rocket. Blue Origin’s test launch facilities are in West Texas.
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