Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to Launch Reusable Rocket Again Saturday
The spaceflight company, formed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is all set to launch its New Shepard rocket into the suborbital space and ensure its safe arrival back to Earth in a soft landing. This is the company's third attempt.
"Working to fly again tomorrow. Same vehicle. Third time. #LaunchLandRepeat @BlueOrigin," Bezos said Friday via his Twitter account, @JeffBezos.
"Pushing the envelope. Restarting BE-3 fast @ high thrust, just 3600 ft from ground. Impact in 6 sec if engine doesn't restart & ramp fast," he said in another tweet, mentioning New Shepard's BE-3 engine.
In November last year, this rocket became the first ever to travel to space and then return to Earth, unhurt, in a fruitful soft landing. In January, the rocket completed its second landing after another un-crewed trip. Following suit, SpaceX also landed its Falcon 9 reusable rocket.
Bezos said that on Saturday, the planned flight will analyze new algorithm for the rocket and also take microgravity-experiments developed by university into suborbital space. "We'll have drone cameras in the air and hopefully will get good aerial footage to share," Bezos said in another tweet on Friday.
Saturday's experiment with the planned flight is an effort by Blue Origin to develop a reusable launch system, objective that the company shares with SpaceX and its founder, Elon Musk.
According to Bezos and Musk, reusable rockets will open an all new level of exploration in space as the cost of a spaceflight can be reduced by a factor of 100, making colonies on Mars economically viable.
