Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, announced the successful flight of New Shepard.
The 2 main parts of the space craft, its capsule and propulsion unit, safely landed as claimed by Bezos' company.
Last April, a hydraulic failure caused the propulsion module to be lost. The billionaire gave no notice about this recent operation. He stated only a week ago that a new mission would commence soon as reported by BBC.
The spaceship is a re-usable vehicle with the future goal of carrying people above the atmosphere. It can transport 6 people above 100km in altitude.
It has a propulsion unit which is specifically designed to take off and land vertically, for it to be utilized repeatedly. It also includes a pressurized passenger capsule that eventually separates once it reaches high altitude.
The idea of having a re-usable spacecraft has been a difficult task to put into action. There have been a lot of concepts done to bring this to reality but nothing ever came close. There are indefinite results to start with. No one has ever made a design that can be available for commercial use. Bezos is about to change this.
There is a big possibility that New Shepard will fly as a medium for science, enabling researchers to facilitate experiments. Such offers involving commercial use may begin the following year.
There will be unmanned missions that can measure the vehicle's capacity to carry passengers. This will gauge the space ship's readiness for commercial use.
Though Mr. Bezos has been secretive about his plans, he has announced that there are other space related ventures which involves his company, Blue Origin.
Blue Origin will produce rocket engines for Nasa's interplanetary escapades and USA's security missions. In Florida, the company has also gained access to one of the most important launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
