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[i]The vertical takeoff and landing spacecraft, developed by closely held Blue Origin LLC, was on a suborbital flight from the company's West Texas spaceport last week, these officials said, when ground personnel lost contact and control of the vehicle. The exact nature and cause of the failure were unclear, but remnants of the spacecraft could provide clues for investigators. Parts of the vehicle were recovered on the ground and are now being analyzed by company experts, according to government and industry officials... A spokesman for Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., declined to comment. Officials at both NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration were told in advance about the launch and are aware of the failure, according to people familiar with the matter. But spokesmen for the agencies also declined to comment... According to NASA, the most recent award to Blue Origin is for work on a vehicle able to transfer up to seven astronauts to the orbiting station — first riding on top of a conventional Atlas V rocket and later powered by the company's reusable booster system intended to "dramatically lower the cost of space access." The federal money is targeted to speed development of a liquid-fueled engine and a novel crew-escape system. The latest event, however, isn't expected to have a direct impact on Blue Origin's access to federal dollars, government officials said, because the test didn't rely on federal funds and wasn't part of the company's development agreement with NASA. It isn't clear whether Blue Origin hopes to use some of the same hardware in its official NASA-funded work and testing.[/i]
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