A Blue Origin launch destined for sub-orbital flight ended in flames following an anomaly during an uncrewed mission.

The mission – NS-23 – launched from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site at 16:27 on Monday afternoon. Just before reaching the 9 000m mark, the New Shepard booster erupted in flames.

Thankfully the capsule sitting on top of the booster was able to be separated and Blue Origin had a chance to test its capsule escape system which it says “functioned as designed”.

“During today’s flight, the capsule escape system successfully separated the capsule from the booster. The booster impacted the ground. There are no reported injuries; all personnel have been accounted for,” the spacefaring firm wrote in an update.

As mentioned, the mission was uncrewed. However, on board the capsule were 36 payloads from academia, research institutions and students from around the globe.

As Space.com reports, Blue Origin has launched six crewed missions since July 2021 and NS-23 was its first uncrewed, payload-only flight since August of last year.

Both the capsule and booster returned to Earth although whether the booster can be repaired and reused is unclear at this stage.

While a booster erupting in flames isn’t great news for Blue Origin, the data it has received is invaluable. SpaceX famously referred to a failed landing of its Starship rocket as “exciting” and used the failure to gather data before ultimately, the rocket launched and stuck the landing.

We’re still not entirely sure why Blue Origin’s booster exploded but hopefully the firm provides an update soon.