If Jeff Bezos’ rocket fails, an emergency escape should save him

When Jeff Bezos takes to space on Tuesday, he’s taking a huge risk. New Shepard has flown successfully 15 times since 2015, but never with people on board. So, although it is a relatively reliable launch system, rockets are still risky.

“It’s about 10,000 times more dangerous than flying on a commercial airliner,” George Nield, former associate administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, told Insider. “In order to learn how to do this in a safer, more reliable and cost effective way, many people think that we need to continue to gain experience by having more and more of these flights.”

Climbing aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with Bezos – and putting their lives in the company’s hands as well – will be his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old Dutch student Oliver. Daemen. The rocket is ready to transport them to the edge of space, where they will experience about three minutes of weightlessness and stunning views.

About 1% of human spaceflight in the United States resulted in a fatal crash, according to an analysis co-authored by Nield earlier this year.

Like many other launch systems, however, New Shepard comes with an escape system. If the rocket begins to fail, the capsule that carries the passengers is programmed to detach from the rocket and drop away from impending disaster.

It is designed to “keep astronauts away and put them to safety,” Gary Lai, senior design director for New Shepard, said in a Blue Origin safety video posted online in April.

Blue Origin has tested the emergency evacuation system 3 times

If all goes according to plan, Bezos and his companions will take off from the Blue Origin launch pad in Texas around 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The New Shepard rocket will howl through the atmosphere, squeezing the riders into their seats, before releasing the passenger capsule and allowing it to pass the edge of space. The entire flight is automated, so no pilot will be on board to pilot the spacecraft.

For about three minutes, Bezos and his companions will feel weightless. They will be able to float around the cabin of the spacecraft, admiring the curvature of the Earth below, before gravity begins to pull them back down. As they dive into the atmosphere, the capsule should drop three parachutes and drift safely back to the Texas desert.

This is the best of times. But Blue Origin has also practiced for the worse. The company has tested the capsule’s escape system three times – once on the launch pad, once in the air, and once in space.

For the first test, in 2012, the capsule was launched far from a support on the ground. This has shown that he can escape accidents on the launch pad. Then, in 2016, Blue Origin tested the system at a higher altitude. The capsule moved away from the mid-air rocket – “in its most stressful condition,” according to Lai.

In 2018, the company carried out the test of the space evacuation system. After the New Shepard rocket separated and began to fall, the capsule immediately fired its thrusters and sank into Earth’s atmosphere, plunging back to the ground and opening its parachutes for a safe landing.

Presumably, this means that if the New Shepard rocket threatens to explode anywhere, the capsule should be able to transport its passengers to safety.

“The capsule is, in our opinion, the most redundant and safest space flight system that has ever been designed or flown,” said Lai. “If a system goes down, you have a backup system. And, in most cases, you have a backup on the backup system.”