Elon Musk’s SpaceX has made several attempts to shoot a rocket into space and land it back on Earth-or on a drone barge in the ocean, anyway.
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Flying from the company’s Van Horn launch site in West Texas, the Blue Origin capsule and propulsion module rocketed more than 100 kilometers into the sky, meaning the capsule reached an altitude considered space. He added, “Full reuse is a game changer, and we can’t wait to fuel up and fly again”.
Bezos announced the compelling test flight video on Twitter – the first time he has ever tweeted – calling the achievement the “rarest of beasts”.
The landing – Rocket booster is reignited at 4,896 feet above ground level.
The rocket blasted off at 12:21 p.m. EST Monday, deployed its capsule and landed eight minutes later.
SpaceX’s Elon Musk congratulated Bezos and the Blue Origin team for yesterday’s flight.
After climbing to 330,000 feet, the capsule then gracefully falls back to earth as its engine fires slow it down.
The space venture of billionaire Jeff Bezos has successfully landed its reusable New Shepard rocket, after launching it into space at an altitude of over 100 kilometers.
Blue Origin was originally only focused on suborbital flight, but in the past two years has become more involved in contracts for the United Launch Alliance. The boosters, on the other hand, descend under guided flight to the landing pad.
The suborbital flights are precursors to Blue Origin’s plans to launch orbital human spaceflight missions from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A Blue Origin video showed the rocket swaying gently from side to side as its four legs flexed in preparation for touchdown amid a swirl of billowing dust.
This is a huge accomplishment for the approaching era of reusable rockets, which is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of spaceflight.
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“You’ve seen a lot of rockets take off, but you’ve never seen one land”, the Amazon CEO told “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday. The space travel will be made public by the company soon. SpaceX’s rockets have been used for commercial, military and NASA payload launches since 2012.
