Amazon's Blue Origin Lands First Reusable Rocket After Space Travel [Watch]
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space rocket company Blue Origin was able to send a rocket to space and bring it back, landing upright.
The Blue Origin space company created the New Shepard rocket with the goal of someday allowing tourists to travel to space and back, CNN Money reports.
Typically, when rockets are sent to space, they are disposed of after use. By creating a reusable rocket, a large amount of money would be saved for space missions.
"Now safely tucked away at our launch site in West Texas is the rarest of beasts -- a used rocket," Bezos said. "Full reuse is a game changer, and we can't wait to fuel up and fly again."
Bezos told CNN that space travel is very inefficient and needs to be changed. He compared today's methods of space travel to discarding an airplane after each cross-country flight.
SpaceX, one of Blue Origin's rivals started by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, has been trying to get their rockets to land upright as well. The rival spaceflight company has been able to get rockets to land upright during test flights, but these rockets did not leave the atmosphere. Rockets that have gone into space and returned to Earth have toppled over when trying to land on their platforms.
Blue Origin and SpaceX are the two main companies trying to get involved in private space travel. Another company is Virgin Galatic, which wants to carry passengers into space as well.
Bezos does not consider SpaceX and Virgin Galatic as competitors, instead thinking of the companies as working toward a common goal.
"I think of our competition primarily as Earth's gravity," he said. "Space is a big place. There's room for all of us."
Blue Origin has already started taking names from interested passengers who would like to travel into space on a future flight. No price has been announced for the flights, and it is unknown how many people have signed up so far.
The New Shepard rocket is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to travel to outer space.
Check out the video below to see the New Shepard successfully landing.
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