Amazon Founder Posts His First Blue Origin Rocket Video

Spaceflight research is a big deal these days. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is among those exploring this frontier with his little known company Blue Origin.

Last week, Blue Origin published two videos of the launch of its New Shepard rocket system that, according to Bezos, took place earlier this year at the company's launch site in West Texas.

In a brief update, Bezos wrote that he posted the videos as the company had received some requests to show the "short hop test flight". In fact, the flight did not last very long and its altitude is easily exceeded by enthusiast hobby rockets. However, New Shepard, which is designed to take astronauts on suborbital flights in the not too distant future, demonstrated that it can launch and then vertically land again on its four feet.

New Shepard consists of a propulsion module as well as a crew capsule. When fully operational, the spaceship will be accelerating for about 2.5 minutes and then separate the two modules. The propulsion module will descend back to the surface and land vertically, while the crew capsule will "go on to coast to the edge of space" and offer a "view to the curvature of the Earth and the beauty of our planet." The capsule is designed to land with the help of parachutes "near the launch site."

Further in the future, Blue Origin is also planning to offer orbital spaceflights.