Blue Origin has noted the failure mechanism which doomed the unmanned flight New Shepard NS-23 suborbital spacecraft. After its lift off at 1401 GMT on 12 September 2022 at T+ 1 minute 5 seconds the New Shepard booster (NS Propulsion Module Tail 3) suffered an apparent issue with its BE-3 main engine while the vehicle was undergoing MaxQ. The Capsule’s abort thruster were activated pushing it away from the booster and to safety. The unmanned capsule later landed successfully.
New Shepard fails on its uncrewed flight but its escape system was proven to work. Courtesy: Blue Origin
Changes made to the BE-3PM engine’s boundary layer cooling system caused increased nozzle heating, in turn causing hot-streak-induced fatigue and eventual thermo-structural failure of the nozzle. The resulting thrust misalignment properly triggered the Crew Capsule escape system
