Jeff Bezos Blue Origin set to fly again after more than 1 year

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin made the announcement on Tuesday that it would soon start space travel again following more than a year of being grounded, as per the Washington Post. 

The corporation stated that after an engine failure of its New Shepard rocket in September 2022, it might start flying as early as Monday.

“We’re targeting a launch window that opens on December 18 for our next New Shepard payload mission,” Blue Origin wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “#NS24 will carry 33 science and research payloads as well as 38,000 @clubforfuture postcards to space. #FortheBenefitofEarth”

If all goes according to plan, there won't be any humans on the following voyage, but there may be passengers on subsequent flights. On the inaugural flight of New Shepard in 2021, Bezos was one of the passengers. The actor William Shatner and TV personality Michael Strahan were among the five crewed missions that the rocket has since completed, according to the Post.

However, New Shepard experienced a malfunction near the end of the previous year, barely a minute after taking off from a Blue Origin site in West Texas. 

According to the Washington Post, flames could be seen streaming from its only BE-3 engine, and an emergency abort mechanism was triggered. The rocket booster crashed and could not be used again, but the rocket and the 36 payloads it carried made a safe landing under the parachute.