An awesome new video from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company shows on-board footage from its reusable New Shepard vehicle as it descended from space to a powered landing on the ground.
The footage was taken by a camera on board New Shepard during its launch on Saturday, April 2. The rocket traveled straight up to a height of 103.8 kilometers (64.5 miles) before it began its descent to Earth. This was the third flight of the rocket, showcasing its reusability aspect, a key goal for Blue Origin.
The video shows the full descent of the rocket, which lasts just a couple of minutes. At the last moment, the rocket re-ignites its thruster, lowering itself gently to the ground, with the thruster’s landing legs clearly visible in its shadow. The capsule on top of the rocket, meanwhile, which will one day take humans to space, separates off-camera at high-altitude to land using parachutes.
The views from the rocket’s peak altitude are probably not too dissimilar to what passengers on New Shepard may one day experience, a stunning sight of Earth’s curvature and atmosphere. The company wants to send paying customers on short hops into space as early as 2018, giving them several minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth. Eventually, Blue Origin wants to conduct flights into orbit.
For now, we’ll just have to make do with this rather amazing footage. You can watch the full video below.