Congrats to Blue Origin on another successful test!

[JoeStrout]

Blue Origin just now conducted another New Shepard test flight — the fifth flight for this booster (something that would have been ridiculous to say a few years ago!).

In this flight, they purposely triggered the launch abort system about 45 seconds into the flight, at the point of maximum dynamic pressure (i.e. just about the worst possible time to do it).  Everything performed flawlessly — the capsule blasted its way well clear of the booster, and the booster handled the extra stress without breaking a sweat.  The capsule parachuted down to a gentle landing, and the booster continued on up to the edge of space, and then came back down, and landed propulsively right on target.



I know this is just a suborbital hop, and I'm eager to see the much bigger New Glenn start flying soon.  But still, in Blue Origin's slow, methodical way, they are making steady progress towards safe, reliable, repeatable flight into space.  In a few years they will be real competition for SpaceX.

Congratulations, Blue Origin!

[JoeStrout]

Here's a great write-up in Ars Technica, explaining why this is so significant:

Blue Origin just validated the new space movement