House Science Space Subcommittee Wants Transparency in Blue Origin Investigation
US House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Chairman Don Beyer (D-VA) and Ranking Member Brian Babin (R-TX) led a letter sent to Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen regarding the agency's investigation into the booster failure experienced September 12 during Blue Origin’s NS-23 mission. In the letter, the Subcommittee leaders assert the seriousness of the situation and note the important role the Committee has in conducting oversight of such matters and ask for a briefing.
"On a different day with a different mission, this vehicle’s anomaly could have put human lives in danger."
Letter from the House Science Space Subcommittee to the FAA.
“As the leaders of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, whose jurisdiction includes commercial space, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, and commercial space launch and reentry activities, we take our oversight role seriously,” the Members said in the letter.
They continued, “to that end, we request that the Associate Administrator of the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation keep the Members of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics appraised of the plans and timetable for the NS-23 anomaly investigation, the root cause of the failure once determined, and plans to ensure that actions to address the root cause or causes are completed.”
House Science Space Subcommittee Expresses Concerns for Future Manned Flights
In the letter, the members of the House Science Space Subcommittee said that "we are relieved that no humans were onboard for the New Shepard 23 (NS-23) mission and that the abort system functioned as designed. However, just over a month ago, a New Shepard vehicle carried out Blue Origin’s sixth human commercial suborbital spaceflight in just over a year. On a different day with a different mission, this vehicle’s anomaly could have put human lives in danger.
The NS-23 mission was the ninth flight for the booster that failed. In a statement released shortly after the incident, the FAA said it would oversee the investigation of the "mishap". “No injuries or public property damage have been reported,” the FAA said in the statement, noting the booster landed within a designated “hazard” area. “Before the New Shepard vehicle can return to flight, the FAA will determine whether any system, process or procedure related to the mishap affected public safety.”
(Source: House Science Committee News release. Images from file)