Move over, SpaceX: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's private spaceflight company Blue Origin made history on Monday, becoming the first to launch a rocket to space and then successfully land it back on Earth.
"Rockets have always been expendable. Not anymore," Bezos wrote in a blog post following the successful mission. "Now safely tucked away at our launch site in West Texas is the rarest of beasts, a used rocket."
The New Shepard rocket began its skyward journey in West Texas yesterday morning, flying unmanned to its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet, just outside of the Earth's atmosphere, before executing its historic landing back at the launch site. On its journey home, the New Shepard had to contend with 119-mph high-altitude crosswinds, but still managed a "gentle, controlled landing," touching down vertically just 4.5 feet away from the center of the landing pad at just 4.4 mph.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has been working on the same goal for some time, with less success, so this is a huge win for Bezos and Blue Origin, which said the test flight "validates" its vehicle architecture and design.
"We are building Blue Origin to seed an enduring human presence in space, to help us move beyond this blue planet that is the origin of all we know," Bezos wrote. "We are pursuing this vision patiently, step-by-step."
The New Shepard has two main parts: a crew capsule in which astronauts will ride and a rocket booster powered by an American-made BE-3 liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen engine. Blue Origin said it will launch astronaut flights following the completion of its test program.
Thrill seekers interested in "reserving a window seat for a trip to space" can sign up on Blue Origin's website to receive pricing information and early access to tickets when the company opens reservations.
The idea is that the New Shepard — named after the first American in space Alan Shepard — will carry six astronauts at a time altitudes beyond 320,000 feet, the boundary of space. Following the powered flight into space, the New Shepard's crew capsule will separate from the booster and float around, offering astronauts "several minutes of weightlessness." The crew capsule will then glide back town to Earth with the help of three main parachutes while the booster descends under guided flight to the landing pad.
Typically, rockets are not salvageable and crash into the ocean after a mission. So companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX have been working on rockets that can be reused, saving precious man hours and money for future flights.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk congratulated Bezos and Blue Origin on Twitter today, though he couldn't help but note the "difference between 'space' and 'orbit.'"
As explained by Space.com, Blue Origin will provide suborbital space tourism and a microgravity science laboratory. "Suborbital means the vehicle can fly only to a lower altitude than is necessary to start orbiting the Earth — it would have to travel higher, and faster, to reach altitudes achieved by orbiting satellites or the International Space Station, for example," the site said.
"Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital VTOL [vertical take-off and landing] flight began 2013. Orbital water landing 2014. Orbital land landing next," Musk wrote.
To take a look at the rocket landing, check out the video below.