
Blue Origin successfully completes first test flight with no passengers after Jeff Bezos trip
CNN
The rocket that flew Jeff Bezos to space last month just took another brief, suborbital jaunt to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, this time without people on board, as the company continues to test the vehicle and prepare to offer rides to other ultra-wealthy thrill seekers.
It marked the 17th test flight for New Shepard, the suborbital rocket developed by Bezos' Blue Origin. The 60-foot-tall vehicle took off from a small launch pad at Blue Origin-owned facilities in West Texas Thursday morning, carrying only a few science experiments and pieces of art rather than passengers, and soared more than 60 miles over the landscape before coming to a pinpoint, upright landing at a nearby concrete pad. The initial launch had been delayed by an hour due to what Blue Origin said was "a payload readiness issue," however the rest of the flight did not initially appear to be significantly impacted by the wait.
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The debris arrives in the rockets’ wake: melted plastics, aluminum and pieces of blue adhesive. It all ends up stranded on the sands of Bagdad beach in northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, home to an endangered species of sea turtle. Just across the border lies Starbase, SpaceX’s launchpad and company town in what once was called Boca Chica, Texas.