Report: Blue Origin to Test ‘New Shepard’ Rocket’s Abort System in October

Blue Origin plans to carry out an unmanned flight test in October to evaluate its New Shepard rocket’s abort system, Space News reported Thursday.

Jeff Foust writes the in-flight abort test of the Blue Origin-built suborbital vehicle will occur at the company’s test site in West Texas and aims to demonstrate how the crew capsule would fire its abort motor and separate from the booster module approximately 16 seconds after take-off.

“We’ll intentionally trigger an escape in flight and at the most stressing condition: maximum dynamic pressure through transonic velocities,” Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin founder and Amazon.com CEO and founder, said in an email to Space News.

Blue Origin said it expects the crew capsule to do a parachute landing operation once its separates from the propulsion module following engine shutdown, Foust reports.

The report also noted that the company plans to start crewed test flights of its New Shepard rocket in 2018 and launch commercial human flights by 2018.