Blue Origin's New Shepard Parachute Investigation Revealed

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. Blue Origin is investigating a parachute issue that caused one of three parachutes on the crew capsule of the New Shepard suborbital flight to not fully inflate during the descent on the NS-25 mission of May 19. The incident occurred because a line controlling the parachute's expansion was not cut as planned, leading to concerns about similar components on other spacecraft like Boeing Starliner. Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, explained that the parachute was stuck in the first stage of opening due to the cutter failing to cut a line. Despite this, NASA praised Blue Origin for sharing information about the problem, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in addressing such issues.