Sit back and watch New Shepard, 110,000 LBs of thrust, mach 3.72, 100 KM in height and a perfect landing.
The company Blue Origin is owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and they’ve just become the first to create a reusable space rocket.
The space vehicle (can we call it a spaceship?) is called the New Shepard and consists of two parts; a rocket and a crew capsule. When the rocket touched down it was travelling at just 4.4 mph.
The rarest of beasts – a used rocket. Controlled landing not easy, but done right, can look easy. Check out video: https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 24, 2015
One of things that makes New Shepard able to touch down safely is that it travels about three times slower than SpaceX. This means it doesn’t end up flinging itself so far into space and doesn’t have as far to fall.
The initial use of New Shepard is also made clear by the video; space tourism. The simulation in the middle of the video seems a little out of place until you remember that Blue Origin will be hoping to fund more develop by recruiting rich space tourists. The size of the window in New Shepard’s crew capsule is important to mention. Bezos wants to offer the best possible experience to an elite crew of rich, brave, pioneers.
Acutally, SpaceX was doing suborbital landings in 2013. And this first reusable rocket ship was the X-15 (1962)