Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launches and lands another test, bringing space tourism closer
‘Mannequin Skywalker’ takes off on his second misson to conduct tests and studies
- Blue Origin successfully launched the eighth test flight of its New Shepard rocket on Sunday.
- The lift-off and landing were textbook.
- Founder Jeff Bezos told the CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, this week that Blue Origin is “the most important work that I'm doing.”
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' private rocket company, launched the New Shepard rocket's eighth test flight from West Texas on Sunday.
New Shepard reached space, cruising at 2,200mph at one point, then came back down for a textbook autonomous landing on the launch pad.
A sonic boom shook the area as the booster sped back to Earth.
It was the second time they were reusing the rocket, the commentator on the company's live-stream said.
After a few delays because of thunderstorms and final safety checks, the reusable rocket lifted off just after 1pm ET.
“Mannequin Skywalker” was also on-board:
Mannequin Skywalker is ready for his 2nd mission on board New Shepard. He’s a little sensitive about being called a “dummy”, as he will be conducting astronaut telemetry and science studies – a very important job!
The capsule with the mannequin inside softly glided back to Earth with parachutes a few minutes after the booster returned.
'Opening space for all'
“Reusability allows us to fly the system again and again,” Blue Origin writes on its website. “With each flight, we’ll continuously improve the affordability of space exploration and research, opening space for all.”
Musk has a similar reason for making SpaceX rockets reusable – it costs a ton of money to send things into space. He and Bezos argue that if they can reuse rockets, it can significantly cut that cost, and make space travel and exploration much easier.
“Take the scenario, where you move out into the Solar System,” Bezos said. “The Solar System can easily support a trillion humans. And if we had a trillion humans, we would have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts and unlimited (for all practical purposes) resources and solar power unlimited for all practical purposes. That's the world that I want my great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren to live in.”
