--- title: "Jeff Bezos’ Space Tourism Craft Has Been Grounded for Six Months Over Escape Malfunction" description: "All's not well at Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, where a space tourism capsule has been grounded for six months amid safety concerns. " date: "2023-03-06" modified: "2023-03-06" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/blue-orgin-capsule-grounded" categories: - "Future Society" - "Jeff Bezos" - "Off-World" - "Space" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "blue origin" - "new shepard" - "space tourism" - "the digest" --- # Jeff Bezos’ Space Tourism Craft Has Been Grounded for Six Months Over Escape Malfunction ![All's not well at Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, where a space tourism capsule has been grounded for six months amid safety concerns. ]() *\Image: Cooper Neill via Getty / Futurism\* ## Keep Calm All's not well at Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, where the company's flagship space tourism capsule has been grounded for six months after its escape hatch fired in error. As [*SpaceNews* reports](), the head of the New Shepard rocket program — yes, the same one that [blasted William Shatner to the edge of space]()— admitted last week that Blue Origin has spent the last six months investigating a September 2022 "anomaly" in which a crewless launch [fired its escape motor and parachute]() about a minute after launch. "We are investigating that anomaly now, the cause of it," Gary Lai, the chief architect of the rocket, said after a New Shepard discussion at during the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Colorado. "We will get to the bottom of it." "I can’t talk about specific timelines or plans for when we will resolve that situation," he added, "other than to say that we fully intend to be back in business as soon as we are ready." ## Lil Boostie Back on September 12, the New Shepard crew rocket launch — which had experiments aboard, but thankfully no people — was forced to abort when it experienced a surprise "[booster error]()" just a minute into a flight that was slated to go up to 60 miles into the sky. As [*Space.com* notes](), the rocket's first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, was lost in the incident. In both the company's initial announcement of the anomaly and in Lai's more recent comments, Blue Origin emphasized that the apparent malfunction did iterate that the escape mechanisms worked the way they were supposed to. "I can tell you with certainty that the acceleration environment that we experienced was exactly what we predicted," the chief New Shepard architect said. "It was exactly as the astronauts were trained for." "Everything went according to plan," Lai added, which seemed a bit euphemistic all things considered. Looking forward, Lai said that Blue Origin expects that "suborbital tourism will dominate" its flights within the coming year, which again seems mighty optimistic given that its tourism crew capsule is still grounded. **More on space malfunctions:** [*Government Contractor Lost Two NASA Satellites, Company Admits*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()