The company's uncrewed New Shepard capsule activated its orbit motor shortly after liftoff from the company's West Texas launch site, after an undisclosed problem with the booster a little before the mission reached 30,000 feet (9,144 meters). The capsule descended safely to Earth under parachutes; what happened to the booster is unknown.

The liftoff happened at 10:27 a.m. EDT (1427 GMT) after being held nearly an hour for undisclosed reasons. Officials have not yet said what caused the issue during launch, which may take some time to investigate. "More information to come as it is available," Blue Origin wrote in a tweet (opens in new tab).

Live video of the launch via Blue Origin cut away from the booster shortly after the anomaly occurred at 1 minute, 5 seconds after launch, focusing on the spacecraft rather than the rocket. The video appeared to show fire surrounding the rocket and the capsule shortly before separation.