Video: Blue Origin’s New Shepard on its first flight

The secret’s out (Image: Blue Origins)

In a move that will garner begrudging respect from Bond villains around the world, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos secretly launched an uncrewed rocket to space yesterday from his private launch facility in the Texas desert.

Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, has been working on sub-orbital space flight since 2000, with an eye on the space tourism market. Its New Shepard capsule and booster rocket system has been developed under a shroud of secrecy, with only a few short-range tests and one failed launch that reached a height of 14 kilometres before the firm lost control of the craft and had to blow it up.


The company’s latest test flight was much more successful, powering to Mach 3 speeds and reaching a height of 93.6 kilometres. Once the rocket finished firing, its capsule was released, slowed by parachutes and returned safely to Earth.

The capsule is capable of carrying six people but was empty for this launch. “Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return,” wrote Bezos in a statement about the launch. The generally accepted definition of space starts at 100 kilometres up, so this flight was very close.

However, the launch wasn’t a total success because a loss of hydraulic pressure meant the firm wasn’t able to recover the rocket’s propulsion modules as planned. Like its rival SpaceX, Blue Origins is aiming to reduce the cost of space flight by reusing rocket components. “If New Shepard had been a traditional expendable vehicle, this would have been a flawless first test flight,” wrote Bezos.

You can expect to hear more from Blue Origins soon, as the company is ramping up its public profile. The firm recently announced a partnership with United Launch Alliance, which regularly launches rockets for NASA, to provide engines for ULA’s new Vulcan rocket. It is also working on a scaled-up version of New Shepard capable of orbital flight, which could potentially dock with the International Space Station.