The way forward for rocketry is right here.
Jeff Bezos’ rocket firm, Blue Origin, just lately blasted a crew of area vacationers on a 10-minute suborbital flight, reaching practically 66 miles above Earth‘s floor. Blue Origin’s big-windowed crew capsule parachuted all the way down to the West Texas desert on April 14, whereas the separated reusable rocket booster’s engine refired to sluggish to some six mph for a comfortable landing on the pad.
The corporate’s CEO, Dave Limp, posted high-resolution drone footage of the booster falling by the ambiance whereas blasting its highly effective BE-3PM engine, which runs on liquid oxygen and hydrogen.
Mashable Gentle Pace
“That never gets old! A new perspective of the booster landing,” Limp posted on X.
At about 10 seconds into the video, you may see the booster kick up desert mud because it corrects its trajectory simply above the floor and strikes to the middle of the launchpad, which is painted with Blue Origin’s feather emblem. (“The feather represents our relentless pursuit of the perfection of flight and the promise of a graceful and safe return to planet Earth, just like a feather’s gentle descent through our precious atmosphere,” the corporate explains.)
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A view of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket booster touchdown on April 14, 2025.
Credit score: Blue Origin
Earlier than touchdown, the booster launched the crew capsule holding Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos‘ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, and 4 different passengers on the brief all-female journey above the 62-mile Kármán line, the boundary many (however not all) use to outline the road between Earth’s ambiance and area.
New Shepard, a profitable high-altitude tourism endeavor for the only a few who can afford such an journey (the deposit alone prices $150,000 USD), is not Blue Origin’s solely rocketry endeavor. In January, the corporate succeeded within the maiden launch of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket, named for legendary U.S. astronaut John Glenn, from Cape Canaveral House Drive Station. It is powered by seven engines, not one, and can compete with the heavy-lift rockets of SpaceX, an organization that has come to dominate the rocket trade.