VIDEO. Blue Origin rocket Jeff bezos succeeds landing – L’Express

Blue Origin lady pawn his SpaceX and Jeff Bezos leads rival 1-0 to Elon Musk in the conquest of space. The reusable launch vehicle sent by the Blue Origin program, funded by the boss of Amazon, conducted a test flight Monday suborbital altitude of 101 kilometers. The pitcher called New Shepard and pressurized capsule, capable of carrying six people were then able to return safely to land separately near the launch site of the company in Texas, in the southern United States.

Priority objective

The rocket rekindled his single engine at about 1,500 meters to brake its descent while his speed reached 7000 km / h. The pitcher was able to come to rest almost at the same point where it had taken off.

Achieving retrieve launchers for reuse, especially the heavier, is considered a priority objective in the aerospace industry and especially by satellite operators to significantly reduce launch costs. Airbus has been working since 2010 and the American SpaceX has already made several unsuccessful attempts to recover the first stage of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle on a floating barge in the Atlantic. She carried out the trials after launches its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) for supply missions for NASA. “The full recovery of the launcher changes the game and we are eager to fly again,” said Jeff Bezos.

The billionaire space enthusiasts

Its competitor Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, congratulated him on Twitter while minimizing the importance of this success. It explains that the launcher and the capsule Blue Orgin only fly to a suborbital altitude, making it less complicated the return of the launcher to the ground.

But with this first recovery of a rocket, Blue Origin establishes a new benchmark in the emerging industry of space tourism, analysts believe. “New Shepard” and its capsule will carry six passengers for suborbital flights to the edge of space where they can be short weightless and floating in the cabin. These tourists will admire the earth curvature and the blackness of space before the capsule back down, held back by three main parachutes. Blue Origin did not say Tuesday when it intended to begin its manned flights.

$ 200 million

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have already clashed in the past on the concept of reuse launchers. Blue Origin, based in Kent in Washington (North West), had filed a patent on the idea to ask the vertical launcher on a platform at sea. But SpaceX has managed to do cancel earlier this year after a lawsuit. The two billionaires space enthusiasts who plan ambitious manned missions had also played operate a no historical shooting at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX has finally won.

As part of its space ambitions, Jeff Bezos announced in September an investment of $ 200 million to develop and build space launchers and capsules in Florida that can be put orbit. The launches will take place since no number shot 36 in Cape Canaveral, close to the Kennedy Space Center. The latter, which had been launched the first US spacecraft, was not used for several years.