Blue Origin’s Surprise Rocket Launch and Safe Landing

Blue Origin Launched Un-crewed Rocket in Space & Back on Earth

The Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced that his rocket company Blue Origin has launched an un-crewed rocket to the edge of the space prior to landing it back on Earth. The rocket had performed a surprising and a historic rocket launch and landing from their facility in Van Horn, Texas. A video had revealed how the launch vehicle had reached the edge of space before it returned back to Earth in a controlled landing.

In a statement, Bezos had mentioned that `rockets have always been expendable but not anymore. Safely tucked away at their launch site in west Texas is the rarest of beast, a used rocket. Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard space vehicle had flown a flawless mission, soaring to 329,839 feet and returned through 119-mph high altitude crosswinds making a gentle controlled landing just four and a half feet from the centre of the pad.

Fuel reuse is a game changer and we can’t wait to fuel up and fly again’. The launch vehicle and the firm’s New Shepard capsule had reached an altitude of around 100 kilometres before separating. It had deployed its parachutes, drifting to the rocket while the rocket utilised controlled firings to descend before deploying its landing leg for a successful return.

Reusable Rockets – Important Development for Space Travel

The rocket had travelled significantly, to a height which was officially beyond the boundary space of 100 kilometres high known as the Karman line, making it the first rocket to land successfully after journeying to space.

This is the second surprise test of Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule and launch vehicle, this year after a launch in April and due to loss of hydraulic pressure it meant that Blue Origin would not recover the rocket for that flight.

This competition has placed the firm in direct competition with SpaceX that had conducted successful ground landings from altitude of 1 kilometre and is now making efforts in landing its Falcon 9 rocket on barges in the sea once they tend to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. Reusable rockets have been viewed as an important development for space travel and it is said that reusable rockets could be bringing down the cost of space flight with the provision of new opportunities.

Blue Origin – Opened Important Space Tourism Avenues

Presently all rockets are expendable which means that new one need to be built for every launch. SpaceX and Blue Origin are making attempt to develop reusable rockets so that the same equipment could be utilised again and again thereby decreasing the cost of going to space. This has opened up important space tourism avenues for Blue Origin.

As for SpaceX, they are more dedicated in getting humans and equipment in orbit. So far, Blue Origin has launched its capsules without a crew, however in the video of the launch, it shows a reproduction of what paying passengers would one day tend to enjoy. The vehicle tends to carry six people who would enjoy four minutes of weightlessness and sight of the Earth from space. Bezos comments that they `are building Blue Origin to seed an enduring human presence in space in order to move beyond this blue planet which is the origin of all that we know’.