The New Shepard
rocket and capsule blasted off from a launch site in West Texas
on Saturday at an undisclosed time, and landed minutes later
back at a landing pad, the company said. The capsule, which was
flying autonomously, parachuted to a nearby site and was
recovered, the company said.
"Perfect booster landing," Bezos wrote on Twitter. Blue Origin
declined to comment on the test but said on Twitter, "Congrats
Blue team on today's (flight)!"
Saturday's flight marks the third successful launch-and-land for
the rocket, with similar missions completed in January and
November.
Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O>, said earlier this
month that Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of
the New Shepard next year and begin flying paying passengers as
early as 2018.
Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX are among a handful of
companies working to develop rockets that can fly themselves
back to Earth so they can be refurbished and flown again,
potentially slashing launch costs.
For now, Blue Origin is flying suborbital rockets, which lack
the speed to put spacecraft into orbit around Earth.
The New Shepard rose through clear skies to an apogee of 339,138
feet (103,369 meters), the company said.
The engine that powers the pocket restarted at 3,635 feet (1,108
meters) above ground level "and ramped fast for a successful
landing," the company said.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Additional reporting
by Irene Klotz; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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