Jeff Bezos Demonstrates Historic Controlled Landing Of A Space Rocket

“Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard space vehicle flew a flawless mission – soaring to 329,839 feet and then returning through 119-mph high-altitude crosswinds to make a gentle, controlled landing just 4 and a half feet from the center of the pad”.

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. “Everything that we have learned here on New Shepard is completely applicable to our orbital booster”, Bezos said.

US space firm Blue Origin claimed Tuesday it has successfully landed a suborbital rocket back at its launch site in what it called a “historic” test flight towards achieving fully reusable rockets.

The technical challenges remain daunting: A vertical touchdown means ensuring that a rocket can survive the heat of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, navigate toward the landing zone and then decelerate from traveling thousands of miles per hour so it settles in softly – and undamaged. “Rockets have always been expendable”, Bezos wrote in blog post about the landing. He even threw some shade at SpaceX, saying that rocket building, when done right, shouldn’t have to be expensive.

However, Musk’s congratulations had a big ‘ol asterisk placed beside it. He rightfully noted that Blue Origin’s launch was a much easier task to accomplish that what SpaceX has attempted in the past. When Blue Origin is ready for passengers, Bezos said he wants to travel to space and fulfill a boyhood dream.

Blue Origin will spend the next few years in testing before sending humans into space, Bezos said.

SpaceX has taken a very similar approach in trying to recover the first stage of its Falcon 9 rockets, coming close to landing them on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

After his major success, competitor and fellow billionaire Elon Musk’s rival company SpaceX congratulated Bezos on Twitter although the importance of the achievement was played down. “It is, however, important to clear up the difference between “space” and “orbit”…”

The New Shepard is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to go to outer space.