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We have lift-off... and landing! Jeff Bezos's reusable Blue Origin rocket successfully launches before coming back to land for a second time
Space firm Blue Origin successfully launched its rocket for the second time
It was created by internet entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon
The rocket hit an altitude of 333,000 feet before 'gently' returning to Earth
Launch is a 'game changer' which opens the door to cheaper space travel
By Imogen Calderwood For Mailonline
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space firm has successfully tested a re-usable rocket for the second time, signalling a dramatic step forward in the development of cheaper space travel.
Blue Origin, the company created by Mr Bezos, successfully launched the New Shepard rocket for the first time in November.
And they have repeated the take-off successfully just two months later, with the rocket hitting an altitude of 333,582 feet (63 miles) before 'gently' returning to Earth in west Texas on Friday morning.
'Game changer': Space firm Blue Origin has successfully launched its rocket New Shepard (pictured) for the second time in just three months
Mastermind: Blue Origin - created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (left) - has taken a giant step forward in the development of cheaper space travel. Re-usable rockets could be used like planes, and therefore dramatically slash the cost of space travel
A video released by Blue Origin showed the launch and landing from the Texas site on January 22, with the rocket slowed to three miles per hour (five kilometres per hour) on its descent with the assistance of parachutes.
Although designed to carry six passengers, the test launches have been carried out with no one on board.
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The breakthroughs by Blue Origin and parallel efforts by rival Internet mogul Elon Musk's SpaceX open up the potential for cutting costs for space travel and making rockets as reusable as airplanes.
Mr Bezos called the accomplishment a 'game changer' in November, which opens the door to lower costs in space travel and his vision of people living and working in space.
'I'm a huge fan of rocket-powered vertical landing,' he wrote on the Blue Origin website.
'Why? Because to achieve our vision of millions of people living and working in space we will need to build very large rocket boosters. And the vertical landing architecture scales extraordinarily well.
Breakthrough: The rocket Blue Origin hit an altitude of 333,000 feet before 'gently' returning to Earth at a speed of just 3mph
Take-off: During the flight, the rocket - which is designed to carry six passengers about 62 miles (110km) above Earth - successfully hit an altitude of 333,000 feet
Space: Blue Origin posted a video of the January 22 successful launch and landing on its website
View from space: A camera attached to the New Shepard rocket traced its journey and captured remarkable views from its altitude of 63 miles
Safe landing: The rocket is slowed to a speed of just 3mph using parachutes (left) on its return to earth (right)
'When you do a vertical landing, you're solving the classic inverted pendulum problem, and the inverted pendulum problem gets a bit easier as the pendulum gets a bit bigger.'
Mr Bezos, who founded online giant Amazon and also owns The Washington Post newspaper, said on Saturday that Blue Origin has solved the problem of balancing to keep the rocket in an upright position as it lands.
Elon Musk's SpaceX in December managed a similar feat for the first time with its Falcon 9 rocket in Florida, after it blasted off on a satellite-delivery mission.
Three...two...one: While Nasa and SpaceX live-stream their major launches, Blue Origin keeps them private, and instead posts updates afterwards. This series of images shows the New Shepard landing in November
Floating: While no men were on-board during the trial, the capsule separated and descended as planned (pictured) and the booster also flew back to the landing pad
Home ground: Blue Origin was created by internet entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, who also created Amazon. Pictured, the part of Texas where Blue Origin is based (marked on the map)
Last Sunday, the company tried to land a rocket on a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, but one of the booster's four landing legs gave way and the rocket keeled over and exploded.
Although currently only launching suborbital rockets – which are not fast enough to put into orbit around Earth – Blue Origin is developing a more powerful rocket engine.
It is expected to begin testing the more powerful engine this year.
'We're already more than three years into development of our first orbital vehicle,' said Mr Bezos.
'Though it will be the small vehicle in our orbital family, it's still many times larger than New Shepard.'
Future: The breakthroughs by Blue Origin and parallel efforts by rival Internet mogul Elon Musk's SpaceX open up the potential for cutting costs for space travel and making rockets as reusable as airplanes
Blast: When the rocket toppled over, the force of the impact triggered an explosion, blowing it apart - the same fate suffered by Musk's two previous rockets
BATTLE OF THE BILLIONAIRES: THE COMPETITION
Blue Origin will go up against space firms from Elon Musk and Richard Branson with its plans to launch cargo and people into space.
Musk's SpaceX is the most advanced of the firms, and already has several satellite launches - and failures - under its belt. Its Dragon capsule will begin ferrying astronauts to the International Space station in 2017.
Competition: Three billionaires – Elon Musk (left), Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson (right) – have entered the space arena in recent years and the race is on to create reusable rockets that could be used for space tourism as well as future scientific missions
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic will focus on both tourist trips and launching cargo, and recently unveiled an upgraded booster to launch satellites.
However, its test have been curtailed by a fatal crash earlier this year - although the firm says they will begin again soon.
Currently, Blue origins and Virgin Galactic plan on entering space close to the boundary with Earth at approximately 329,839 feet (101km).
But Space X's re-useable rockets have loftier plans to stay in orbit, which requires more fuel and power.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' reusable Blue Origin rocket successfully launches
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