Blue Origin, the private space rocket company owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, just posted highlights from their first test rocket launch and it’s pretty damn cool. The Blur Origin New Shepard vertical takeoff, vertical landing spacecraft blasted off and reached a height of 58 miles before separating from its rocket and parachuting back to Earth.
Our 110,000-lbf thrust liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen BE-3 engine worked flawlessly, powering New Shepard through Mach 3 to its planned test altitude of 307,000 feet. Guidance, navigation and control was nominal throughout max Q and all of ascent. The in-space separation of the crew capsule from the propulsion module was perfect. Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return.
