Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos space company, is scheduled to relaunch the same rocket for a fourth time Sunday morning, an important step in advancing its plan for reducing the cost of spaceflight with multiple-use booster vehicles.
Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos space company, is scheduled to relaunch the same rocket for a fourth time Sunday morning, an important step in advancing its plan for reducing the cost of spaceflight with multiple-use booster vehicles.
For the first time, the Kent-based company will live stream the launch. Unlike rival SpaceX, Blue Origin previously has only released video after its missions.
Bezos has slowly been pulling back the curtain of mystery around his space ambitions. In March he guided a few journalists around the company’s headquarters in Kent, where both the rocket and its engines were designed.
Sunday’s planned mission also will test whether the unoccupied crew capsule, which separates from the rocket at the edge of space, can safely return to Earth using only two of its three parachutes.
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“Look for one-chute-out test starting about 7 minutes into flight + continue pushing envelope on booster,” Bezos advised on Twitter.
“And of course — development test flight — anything can happen,” he continued, adding as a hashtag the company’s motto, #GradatimFerociter, which translates as “Step by step, ferociously.”
The same booster rocket last flew April 2 to a height of 103 kilometers (64 miles), returning for a successful vertical landing at Bezos’ vast West Texas rocket range.