Blue Origin pushes space launch to Thursday – the same day a geomagnetic storm will strike Earth

BLUE Origin has pushed back its next launch to a day on which astronomers are predicting the arrival of a geomagnetic storm.

The U.S. company, which is the brainchild of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, delayed the fourth crewed flight of its New Shepard vehicle from today to Thursday, March 31.

Blue OriginBlue Origin has pushed back its next space launch to Thursday[/caption]

Ejection of high-energy material captured by a Nasa observatory on Monday

It cited predicted high winds at the firm’s West Texas launch site over the next couple of days.

“Weather is the only remaining factor to get to launch,” Blue Origin wrote on Twitter on Monday.

While the postponement will save the crew of six passengers from a bumpy ride, there’s another kind of storm brewing this week.

According to space weather experts, a geomagnetic storm is possible on Thursday following an eruption of hot material from the Sun.

Data from Nasa’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows that a volley of radiation known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is heading for Earth.

As well as triggering showings of the Northern Lights as far south as New York, the resulting impact on our planet’s magnetic field could spell trouble for astronauts, including passengers on Blue Origin’s flight.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, G2-category geomagnetic storms such as the one expected on Thursday can cause “increased biological risk to astronauts or passengers and crew in high latitude, high altitude flights”.

Should Blue Origin’s launch coincide with the storm, crew members could be exposed to dangerous levels of solar radiation.

It’s possible that navigation technology on board the flight could also be affected, though the impact is unlikely to be significant from a G2 storm, a rating categorised as “moderate” by the NOAA.

Last month, a similarly rated storm knocked 40 SpaceX satellites out of orbit shortly after they lifted off from Earth.

According to space experts, this week’s storm is expected to rattle Earth’s magnetic field from late on Wednesday into the early hours of Thursday.

Blue Origin’s launch is scheduled to take place Thursday at 9:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 BST; 8:30 a.m. local time in Texas).

It’s unclear if the firm’s top brass are aware of the storm. Should there be any risk to the crew, it’s likely the flight will be delayed further.

The Sun has reached out to Blue Origin for comment.

It’s the second delay to hit NS-20 in as many weeks.

The mission was initially set for March 23 with a crew of six including comedian Pete Davidson.

Davidson, who is currently dating Kim Kardashian, had to pull out of the flight after the date was pushed back by six days for unspecified reasons.

A new sixth crew member was later announced. Following this week’s delay, the rocket will now liftoff on March 31.

The space squad on board is now made up of Party America CEO Marty Allen, husband and wife Sharon and Marc Hagle, entrepreneur Jim Kitchen, Blue Origin’s Gary Lai, and Dr. George Nield, who is president of Commercial Space Technologies.

They will experience a few minutes of weightlessness during their 11-minute round trip to space.

New Shepard’s suborbital flights hit about three times the speed of sound – roughly 2,300 mph – on trips to the edge of space, an altitude roughly 60 miles (100 km) above Earth’s surface.

The crew are said to be taking a selection of postcards written by kids as part of Blue Origin’s Club for the Future program.

The idea is that Bezos’s rocket can take their dreams and wishes into space.

Blue Origin has not revealed the price of a ticket to fly on its rocket, designated New Shepard, but sales for the company were nearing $100 million last year, according to The New York Times.

While it’s unclear how much of that revenue was from ticket sales, Jeff Bezos told the Times that the company was doing “really well with private sales.”

AFPBlue Origin is the brainchild of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos[/caption]

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