Mission accomplished

Private space company Blue Origin released a glitzy video this week showing its New Shepard rocket blasting off from West Texas, deploying a test capsule, then dropping to a precision landing back on Earth.

It is an important milestone for the company. Traditionally, rockets have been treated as expendable – used once, then left to fall into the ocean. Reusable rocket technology is one way to drastically reduce the cost of launches.

The New Shepard rocket reached an altitude of 100km, the boundary of space as recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). The test capsule it carried is designed to eventually hold six space tourists on a sub-orbital flight in which they will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and be able to look down on Earth.

Blue Origin is not the first company to achieve a landing of this nature. In 2013, Elon Musk’s Space X used a test vehicle known as Grasshopper to demonstrate that precision, upright landing was possible for a rocket.

However, subsequent attempts to land Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket after real missions to deploy satellites have met with limited success. In April, the rocket touched down too hard on a floating platform in the Atlantic and tipped over. More attempts are planned.

Musk has also recently been awarded a contract to transport astronauts to the International Space Station using the Falcon 9, starting in 2017.

With Blue Origin’s success, however, it is clear that the commercial race for space is hotting up.