Reusable rocket: In a first, unmanned booster returns safely to Earth

“It’s the first time that a private company has successfully [landed a space vehicle], although several have been trying this kind of approach to reusable rockets”, Mr Malik said.

The rocket, created to transport six passengers, lifted off from Texas on Monday and reached an altitude of about 100 km (62 mi.), crossing the acknowledged limit of Earth’s atmosphere and briefly entering space then returning to the launch pad eight minutes later, Blue Origin said.

Blue Origin powered past rival SpaceX on November 23, becoming the first private space company to successfully launch, fly, and land a reusable space vehicle.

The unmanned New Shepard rocket blasted off from its west Texas launch site and then returned and landed safely, representing a coup for spaceflight. “Elon Musk’s company does have a more daunting task, however – its Falcon 9 reusable first stage is propelling the rocket to an orbital, not suborbital altitude”.

“Congrats to Jeff Bezos and the BO team for achieving VTOL [Vertical take-off landing] on their booster”, Mr Musk tweeted.

The BE-3 rocket, however, fell back to earth, descending through 119 miles per hour crosswinds.

“When you throw a rocket away, an expendable rocket, you use it once and you throw away all that expensive space hardware”, Bezos told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” today.

The billionaire Bezos announced in September that Blue Origin will build rockets and launch them into orbit from Cape Canaveral.

Somewhat dampening the party, SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk has come into both congratulate Bezos and Blue Origin, while downplaying its actual achievements.

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.

“Full reuse is a game changer, and we can’t wait to fuel up and fly again”, Bezos said. “It is however important to clear up the difference between “space” and orbit'”. The spacecraft reached Mach 3.72 speeds during its test flight. The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is vying for its second award from NASA to ferry cargo to the worldwide Space Station.

New Shepard seems to be initially used as a science platform to allow researchers to do their experiments when the capsule reaches outer space, and could be offered as early as 2016.

There is one small caveat, however, which might rain on Blue Origin’s parade.