Blue Origin Successfully Tests Escape Pod and Lands Booster Rocket

This is now the fifth time they've been able to land the booster after a launch. Even more impressive, this time they also tested a Crew Escape Pod which puts 70,000lbs of thrust against the booster - which was never designed to receive that amount of off-axis pressure.

Crazy thing is, after the escape pod did it's thing, the booster was un-phased! It kept flying upward until it was done, then gracefully landed itself on the desert floor. Blue Origin was shocked- they fully expected the booster to fail and die.

Incidentally, the crew capsule escape worked flawlessly as well - landed just fine.

Super successful test, indeed! The private sector is getting pretty good with these launch systems. I have a feeling it won't be long now before space travel becomes more widely available and considerably cheaper than back in the NASA days.

Video in the article:
Washington Post | Jeff Bezos launches–and lands–his rocket for a fifth time, surprising even himself

a reply to: SoulOfCeres

I love this stuff. We gotta get off this rock and to infinity and beyond. I think humans have potential to become interstellar, intergalactic, interuniversal even... we must, to survive. We shall not be defeated or thwarted by such mundane things as the collapse of our home planet, star, galaxy or universe. I'm an adamant transhumanist and I plan to pilot my robot body into the great beyond for time immortal. Thanks to projects like this, I have hope.

a reply to: SoulOfCeres

So nasa within a couple of years has now and will continue to be what amounts to the FAA

From the video caption:

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin New Shepard rocket was the first rocket to land vertically.

*Ahem*

originally posted by: JackKcaj
a reply to: SoulOfCeres

I love this stuff. We gotta get off this rock and to infinity and beyond. I think humans have potential to become interstellar, intergalactic, interuniversal even... we must, to survive. We shall not be defeated or thwarted by such mundane things as the collapse of our home planet, star, galaxy or universe. I'm an adamant transhumanist and I plan to pilot my robot body into the great beyond for time immortal. Thanks to projects like this, I have hope.

I too want a robot body. Years of training horses has left me with an uncooperative spine.

This is really exciting news. I can't wait to ride that rocket into space.

a reply to: Saint Exupery

Yes, and?

a reply to: SoulOfCeres

I think it is the claim of being "the first" to do this.

If you do a quick google search for "vertical landing rocket" you will see that there are others. And, yes, technically the LEM did do a vertical landing... on the moon. (St. Exupery, so I gave ya a star for the smart # remark as it made me smile.)

So this is like the third private space launch announcement this week! That is pretty cool! I am just waiting for the day when the internet melts down, and this place twice,...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I never said it was the first time. I said it was the FIFTH time Blue Origin had done it.

a reply to: SoulOfCeres

Breath. Don't panic. Relax. Mostly harmless.

The caption on the video DID say it was the first time... which is what I think the point of St. Exupery's post was originally meant as.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Oh now I understand. I kept thinking, "are they confusing 'fifth' with 'first'??"