Jeff Bezos’ Commercial Rocket “New Shepard” Takes Perfect Test Flight

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  • Source: www.youtube.com / Via: www.youtube.com

    If you’ve always dreamed of going to outer space, check this out – it could be what your journey looks like in a few years.

    Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and one of the uber-wealthy entrepreneurs who wants to make commercial space flight a reality, is celebrating a successful test flight and “historic” rocket landing of his company Blue Origin’s rocket, New Shepard.

    The rocket lifts up a capsule that will eventually carry paying passengers to 329,839 feet above the Earth over West Texas, just slightly higher than the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. Passengers can look out the windows at the planet below and experience four minutes of floating before the capsule launches parachutes and falls back down.

    Meanwhile the rocket free-falls to Earth and launches thrusters at the last minute so it can land safely. In another mostly-successful test flight back in April, the rocket crashed because of a hydraulic system failure – but it looks like they’ve got that problem taken care of, as this video shows the rocket lightly touching down less than five feet from its target.

    “Perfect landing,” the narrator says as Blue Origins scientists cheer and pop champagne. “We made history today. Now, who wants to go to space?”

    That’ll be around a bajillion dollars, please.

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