Amazon CEO’s Space Company Launched Reusable Rocket For Third Time

Blue Origin's hat trick

By Carl Franzen | Published Apr 2, 2016 12:51 AM EDT

Science

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, has a separate company called Blue Origin, which is dedicated to developing reusable rockets. Yes, as in the space kind. And if you haven’t heard yet, Blue Origin has already launched and landed its flagship reusable rocket, the New Shepard, on two separate occasions. Tomorrow, the company will attempt a third launch, according to tweets from Bezos today.

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.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 1, 2016

We’ll have drone cameras in the air and hopefully will get good aerial footage to share. #LaunchLandRepeat @BlueOrigin
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 1, 2016

Bezos is pursuing a similar goal to fellow rival tech entrepreneur-turned-rocket guru Elon Musk, even beating Musk’s SpaceX to land a reusable rocket upright (and participating in some resulting rocket smack talk). However, SpaceX has actually flown numerous missions into space, launching satellites and sending supplies up to the space station. Blue Origin has yet to actually put its rocket into orbit, but its tests like these that are necessary to help it get there.

Update: Saturday, April 2, 2016: Bezos tweeted on Saturday that the launch and landing were “perfect“, and tweeted a link to video footage of the launch a few hours later.

[H/T: The Verge]

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