Blue Origin Sticks the Landing
Jeff Bezos’ space tourist company makes a move in the upright-landing-rocket race.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/35/05/35055faa-8882-45e5-b168-17648298cdca/blueoriginlanding.jpg)
The secretive private space company Blue Origin announced a huge feat this morning: They launched their New Shepard rocket to space and successfully landed it vertically on the launchpad. The accomplishment came just six months after the rocket’s first suborbital test flight. Owner Jeff Bezos published his first tweet this morning to share the incredible video, posted below. New Shepard also successfully separated the capsule that the company intends to one day carry space tourists, which also made safe landing. SpaceX is working on controlled upright landings with its Falcon 9 rocket from orbit (New Shepard flew suborbital) on an ocean platform, but without success so far.
