Bezos Beat Musk on Reusable Rocket

The Soviet Union jumped ahead of the U.S.by being the first to put a satellite into orbit – Sputnik – and then by sending the first human into space, he noted. Elon Musk might also point out that SpaceX failed to land its rocket successfully, but the failure occurred after the Falcon delivered payload to the International Space Station. Yes, SpaceX has been doing it since 2013, but so far nobody has been able to return an entire rocket back to Earth in one piece (the shuttle’s fuel tank was not reusable) after a vertical take-off.

The Blue Origin launch on Monday was a historic one.

Through this significant landing, Blue Origin has demonstrated the technical viability of reusability, a revolutionary approach to spaceflight that counts fellow CSF Member’s Masten Space Systems and SpaceX among its pioneers.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin earned itself a place in history by successfully launching and landing a reusable rocket on Tuesday. “If airlines discarded 747 jets after each cross-country flight, you can imagine how expensive your ticket would be”, Bezos added. “I think the first golden age was the 60s”.

Blue Origin has released a somewhat preposterous video of the mission. It will begin tests in 2016 and it should be flight-ready by 2017 so that it can be deployed in United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.

“One of the good things of this vehicle is that it can fly autonomously”, he said.

The competition aims to develop low-priced rockets so space travel can be affordable not only to tourists, but also to researchers and other companies for the first time.

After the successful launch, Mr. Bezos for the first time gives an ambitious timetable that the company plans to starting commercial suborbital flights carrying paying paid potentially in the future two years. The company also performed a “landing” over water in 2014, where the rocket hovered for a few seconds before tipping over. However, SpaceX owner, Elon Musk, has congratulated Bezos for the successful test through Twitter.

SpaceX yet to taste success in sending rockets into outer space and making them return to land safely. The most recent versions of its Falcon machines are created to land themselves on uncrewed ocean-going platforms.

Bezos does not consider SpaceX and Virgin Galatic as competitors, instead thinking of the companies as working toward a common goal.

Despite the likes of Bezos and Musk replacing the US government’s long-term leadership, public interest in this latest race for space “seems notably lacking” when compared to engagement with the early days of space exploration, observed Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.