Blue Origin beats SpaceX to re-launching a reusable rocket

Congratulations to Blue Origin for re-launching their suborbital rocket New Shepard. “The booster reached a maximum altitude of 333,582 feet, or 63 miles, above the Earth’s surface, before landing gently back at Blue Origin’s test facility in Texas”, according to The Verge.

According to BBC NEWS: Although all the flights so far undertaken by M.r Bezos have been unmanned, he does eventually plan to fly passengers. “The very same New Shepard booster that flew above the Karman line and then landed vertically at its launch site last November has now flown and landed again, demonstrating reuse,” the businessman said. “This time, New Shepard reached an apogee of 333,582ft (101.7km) before both capsule and booster gently returned to Earth for recovery and reuse.” One hundred kilometres is regarded as the official boundary of space. New Shepard does not achieve the velocities that would allow the system to make orbit and stay up, but Mr. Bezos says his Blue Origin space company is working on a family of rockets that would make this possible.