Blue Origin launches and lands future space tourism capsule

The New Shepard rocket and space capsule, belonging to billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, were successfully launched and returned to Earth on Father’s Day. This was Blue Origin’s fourth successful test of a reusable rocket, an achievement that Bezos puts down in no small part to his cowboy boots.

The boots are emblazoned with Blue Origin’s motto: “Gradatim Ferociter” which is Latin for “Step by step, ferociously.” An image of them was posted on Twitter by Bezos, as he also highlighted “careful engineering” as a reason for the success.

Careful engineering plus of course … the lucky boots. Successful mission. #RocketsReused #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/ON5lhfGPSK

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 19, 2016

As Fathers across the land awoke to lovingly prepared breakfast in bed, the rocket launched its crew capsule into suborbital space before both returned to Earth in separate landings. A peak altitude of 331,501 feet (101,041 meters) or 62.7 miles (101 kilometres) was reached, taking the New Shepard to just above the 62-mile boundary between Earth and space. The booster landed 8 minutes after takeoff, with the crew capsule landing a minute later with the help of two parachutes.

The main purpose of this test was to see how well a landing of the crew capsule would go with just two of its main parachutes. It should be able to land just with one but normally uses three for safety.

It did fine with just two.

“That was magic,” said Ariane Cornell of Blue Origin’s Strategy and Business Development team. “It was an impeccable test mission for us.”

Space tourism on the horizon

The capsule carried three different microgravity science payloads, including a dust collision experiment for Braunschweig University in Germany, a fluid flow experiment for Louisiana State University and William Jewell College, and a fluid shape experiment for Purdue University.

Research payloads are not the only long-term goal for Blue Origin crafts, however. Although details are still thin on the ground, tourism flights are the aim.

The flights would allow passengers to experience several minutes of weightlessness as well as the ability to see the Earth through New Shepard’s giant windows, Blue Origin said.

“You have no idea how badly I want to fly on this right now,” said Blue Origin engineer Geoff Huntington, who with Cornell co-hosted a live webcast of the launch – the first of its kind for the often secretive company.

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Image credit: Blue Origin

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