An unmanned crew capsule separated from the rocket on its way up, completing its own successful landing. Now we know what that was all about.
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Reusable rockets and safe return flights are critical events if space travel is going to be commercialized.
Blue Origin is now competing with Elon Musk’s agency SpaceX, which has yet to successfully land a reusable booster.
The company has launched a You Tube video documenting the take-off, an animated stimulation of what the flight in space will be like and the landing. A human aboard that rocket would be considered an astronaut. Then, the engines were cut and the New Shepard fell back toward Earth with its airbrakes deployed, restarting its engines and landing gently at 4.4mph. In short, Musk’s Falcon 9 spacecraft had further to fall than Bezos’ New Shepard.
New Shepard launched from Blue Origin’s test site in west Texas, soared to 329,839 feet (100.5 km) before returning safely to terra firma. The unit landed only 4.5ft (1.4m) off the centre from the original launch pad. “Full reuse is a game changer, and we can’t wait to fuel up and fly again”, said Bezos in a press release on Tuesday.
Now that Bezos and Blue Origin can claim that they’ve successfully launched a rocket to space and returned it to Earth dry and in one piece, they’ve wasted no time revving up the marketing machine.
Bezos started his space company, Blue Origin, and is hoping the breakthrough will help pave the way for their rockets to eventually carry astronauts and tourists into space. In fact, Blue Origin is already compiling something of a “waiting list” though it hasn’t publicly listed prices or provided a time table for any future manned flights.
SpaceX has tried on several occasions to land its rockets on Earth undamaged, but weather and technical problems have prevented it from doing so.
Blue Origin and SpaceX are two of the main players in the new business of private space launches.
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“It is … important to clear up the difference between “space” and ‘orbit, ‘” he tweeted. Blue Origin also plans to build and launch an orbital rocket that would fly people and cargo to space from Florida.
