Now, Blue Origin, a private aerospace company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has succeeded in landing New Shepard back on Earth with both the capsule and propulsion unit surviving the journey.
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Named in honor of the first American in space, Alan Shepard, the New Shepard vertical takeoff and vertical landing vehicle will carry six astronauts to altitudes beyond 100 kilometers, the internationally-recognized boundary of space.
The latest test flight and success wasn’t announced until after the fact, a sharp contrast to the media frenzies which have accompanied SpaceX’s close-but-no-cigar landing attempts.
Blue Origin on Tuesday said its space vehicle flew into space and returned successfully in a proof of concept that illustrates how commercial space flight is progressing. “Full reuse is a game changer, and we can’t wait to fuel up and fly again”, Bezos said in the news release.
But as billionaire owner of SpaceX Elon Musk pointed out, they’re attempting to land a larger and more powerful reusable rocket that could orbit around earth.
While Musk did tweet his congratulations to Bezos and Blue Origin he quickly pointed out that the rocket only reached the edge of space.
Nevertheless, Blue Origin’s successful launch and landing is no small feat and a big step toward more accomplishments from the private company and potential space exploration. The vehicle was moving at just 4.4 miles per hour when it made its landing, Blue Origin said. In that operation, the launch and the landing of the capsule were flawless, but the rocket crashed, because of a failure with a hydraulic system. It also deployed a capsule and landed vertically on top of a pillar of flame coming out of its engine.
Musk took to twitter to congratulate Bezos and to clarify the difference between what the two companies are hoping to achieve. After this supersonic flight towards sub-orbital space, the crew capsule separates from the booster and coasts into space, providing several minutes of weightlessness. This is necessary for space travel to become mainstream and sustaining multiplanetary life, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk. And last Friday, SpaceX was approved by NASA for its first human transport mission to the International Space Station in late 2017.
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Rival space tourism company SpaceX has repeatedly failed to safely land its Falcon 9 booster.
