The New Shepard space vehicle blasts off on its first developmental test flight over Blue Origin's west Texas launch site in this handout provided by Blue Origin. (Photo : Reuters)
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin earned itself a place in history by successfully launching and landing a reusable rocket on Tuesday.
Blue Origin launched its New Shepard rocket, named after American astronaut Alan Shepard, into space on Monday. The rocket launched a capsule that in the future will have the potential to carry astronauts into suborbital flights at the height of just above the 100-kilometer altitude, a height considered by experts as the beginning of outer space.
After around 11 minutes, the rocket descended into the ground with the help of parachutes. Just before touchdown, the rocket fired its engines again and landed at the launch pad at a speed of 4.4 miles per hour.
The latest test flight from Blue Origin is a significant leap compared to its previous test flight in April. Back in April, the launch and landing of the capsule were perfect. However, the rocket crashed due to a failure traced back to its hydraulic system.
Bezos said that Blue Origin engineers were able to recognize the problem and decided to completely replace the hydraulics with a new design.
Bezos told The New York Times, "Think of this as the beginning of a through test program." When asked about when the next flight schedule will be, he added, "[it] should be a matter of weeks."
According to the Wall Street Journal, Blue Origin is planning to conduct at least two dozen additional test flights. These flights will include validation flights in order to demonstrate that the capsule, containing passengers, can safely separate from the first stage in case the rocket experiences malfunction during its ascent.
