The spaceflight company owned and founded by billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos landed its reusable rocket, named New Shepard, for the second time.
The rocket launched from their site in west Texas, accelerating to a top speed of about 4,600 kph, and achieving an altitude of more than 100 kilometers, the technical height defined to be the start of space (called the Kármán line). They also deployed the crew capsule at a height of about 6 km above ground, which parachuted safely back to Earth.
Both Blue Origin and Space X have achieved what was thought impossible ten years ago: sending a rocket to space and then bringing it back. This type of rocket reusability is expected to drastically cut the cost of spaceflight, enabling more people to take a trip to space than at any other point in history.
