The dream has become a reality: Blue Origin has successfully launched and re-landed a suborbital space launcher

The Blue Origin company announced that it was able to re-launch and land the "New Shepard" space launcher, which it had already launched and landed in November 2015. In doing so, the company was able to show that these launchers can really be used again and took the next, and perhaps the most important, step on the long road to becoming Multipurpose space launchers.

Blue Origin announced that it had successfully launched and re-landed the "New Shepard" space launcher, which Already launched and landed November 2015. In doing so, the company was able to show that these launchers can really be used again and took the next, and perhaps the most important, step in the long road to making space launchers multi-purpose.

The current test was conducted on January 22 at the company's test base in Van Horn, Texas. In accordance with the company's policy, the announcement of the experiment was published only after it was completed and crowned with success. After launch, the New Shepard reached a maximum altitude of 101.7 km, about one kilometer higher than the previous test in November.

The company did not make many changes to the launcher before the relaunch, but noted a software change in the computer system that steers the launcher back: instead of steering itself to the center of the lander during the whole way back until landing, the launcher only steers itself to the center at the beginning, and when it approaches the ground it does not aim specifically to the point This is only for any point that will be more comfortable for him and will not require him to perform complicated and dangerous maneuvers.

This is the company's third experiment with the launcher, of which it managed to safely return the capsule three times and the launcher twice. After the previous test, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, said that the company would need to perform a large number of other tests to qualify the launcher for manned operational activity.

"New Shepard" is a space vehicle that includes the launcher itself and on top of it a capsule that will in the future man space tourists. The launcher is designed for sub-orbital flight only - that is, it only reaches the official space limit, which is defined at a height of 100 km above the ground. The launcher will allow the future space tourists (and the rich) to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the amazing view of the Earth from space.

It seems that this is another and important development in the race that is apparently taking place between Blue Origin and the SpaceX company, which is also trying to develop a multipurpose space launcher - the Falcon 9. Unlike Blue Origin, SpaceX is building the launcher for orbital flights much higher than the limit of space , which makes the process of returning the launcher to Israel more complex and difficult - but also recently succeeded to land the first stage of the launcher (which is the only one she is currently focusing on in the return attempts).

in a message he published Jeff Bezos following the current success, he referred to the future intentions of the company, which intends to build a multipurpose orbital space launcher that will be larger than New Shepard. Bezos also indicated that he hopes to share more details about the launcher and its engine, BE-4, later this year.