BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Steve Young, the owner of Pineapples restaurant in Melbourne, rocketed to zero-gravity in August and said that even after Monday’s failure for Blue Origin, the businessman is still confident the New Shepard is safe.
The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating why the capsule separated from the rocket one minute after liftoff in Texas.
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Investigators will determine whether the failure threatened public safety.
“Everything operated as it needed to in case of an emergency,” Young said. “I’m still interested in hearing what happened to the booster and why it needed to do that.”
Young said he asked Blue Origin himself but was told the company doesn’t know yet.
The 23rd New Shepard flight was its first failure.
Unlike Young’s flight, however, Monday’s mission only carried experiments.
The next paying customers will wait to fly until after the investigation is complete and when the rocket is no longer grounded.
CBS News space analyst Bill Harwood said Blue Origin needs to learn what the issue was and fix it to reassure its passengers.
‘’I think they’ll leave no stone unturned to do that,” Harwood said.
Young said the wait will be worth it for future passengers.
“I’d say to anybody that’s going to still go for it to hang tight,” he said. ‘’You’ll never forget it.”
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