The technique used to land New Shepard is called a propulsive landing, The Verge explained, and while it is similar to the method used by SpaceX, the latter hopes to have its Falcon 9 land vertically on an autonomous floating spaceport in the ocean, the website noted. Blue Origin deserves kudos for being the first firm to perform a successful vertical takeoff and landing with a rocket, King said. So being ever-the-businessman, Tito abandoned the original mission, and linked up with Space Adventures, where he blasted off onboard the Soyuz TM-32 rocket ship in 2001.
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Blue Origin, founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, aims to lay the foundation for an enduring human presence in space – a goal that reusing rocket boosters could help to achieve.
“Full reuse is a game changer, and we can’t wait to fuel up and fly again”, Bezos said. “If airlines discarded 747 jets after each cross-country flight, you can imagine how expensive your ticket would be”, Bezos added.
“It’s the first time that a private company has successfully [landed a space vehicle], although several have been trying this kind of approach to reusable rockets”, said astro-journalist and Space.com’s managing editor Tariq Malik. It’s still early days, yet Bezos is quite confident of starting commercial suborbital flights carrying passengers over the next couple of years. The commercial suborbital flights from Blue Origin are expected in two years. But he stressed that the company, whose motto is “step by step, ferociously”, wouldn’t rush: “We’ll do it when we’re ready”. During a brief interview Tuesday, he said if anything goes well, “I’m thinking it could be sometime in 2017”.
The company didn’t announce the launch test in advance, and it only issued a press release about the attempt the next day. The vehicle is created to operate without any pilots on board. Then there’s SpaceShipOne, the brainchild of Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson which also relies on a launch from air. He plans to send up satellites first, then people – including space tourists and even himself.
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However, the X-15 was a rocket-powered jet (not a traditional rocket), funded by the government (not a private company), and didn’t drop off a space capsule (like the New Shepard). SpaceX’s Grasshopper test rig – essentially a Falcon 9 first stage with a single Merlin engine -reached an altitude of 744 meters on its eighth and final flight. Slowed by a perfectly timed retro burn, the autonomous flight system gently landed the rocket into the history books. Most importantly, the rocket successfully returned to Earth, gently landing at a speed of 4.4mph on its original launch site. Interested people can sign up for information on the company’s website.
