Space tourism took another step closer this week when private company Blue Origin successfully tested an escape system for the crew capsule on their New Shepard booster rocket. The company, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, launched the test from its Texas base on Wednesday.

At 45 seconds into the flight, when the rocket had reached 16,000 feet, the emergency system was initiated. The prototype crew capsule, situated on top of the rocket, blasted itself using an emergency engine of its own. It then returned safely to Earth beneath three parachutes.

Surprisingly, the rocket also returned safely to the ground, making a stable upright landing on the launch pad. Although it was designed to do this, engineers had feared the thrust from the escape system would destabilise it. In that event, it was programmed to shut down and fall to Earth, where it would have been destroyed upon impact.

This would have been a pity, as the rocket has flown four previous missions and successfully landed each time. Now it has survived a fifth mission, Blue Origin plans to retire it from active use. It will probably find its way into a museum.

The New Shepard booster is designed to take the crew capsule to the edge of space, where six space tourists at a time can experience micro-gravity. They will also be able to look at our home planet through the largest windows ever flown in space.

On Wednesday’s flight, the windows were not installed, but Blue Origin plans to fly a full test flight of the crew capsule – complete with windows – next year. </s> Blue Origin, the private rocket company run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, performed the first airborne test of its vehicle’s emergency escape system today over the Texas desert.

The spectacular in-flight test appeared to go perfectly and was immediately declared a success as the New Shepard rocket booster and capsule separated high in the sky and later touched down one after the other, undamaged.

The dramatic demonstration, which drew swift congratulations from Nasa, will go down as a milestone in the company’s plans to build reusable rockets that can take people into space for a fraction of the cost that space tourists pay today.

The New Shepard rocket launched shortly after 10.30am local time and climbed to an altitude of 16,000 feet before controllers sent a command that ordered the rocket to trigger the built-in escape system.



Cameras on the ground captured the moment the unmanned crew capsule blasted free of the rocket booster and streaked ahead on a pillar of fire. Moments later, it released its giant blue and red parachutes and floated back to Earth. The capsule landed at about 3mph and threw up a cloud of dust on impact.



The booster itself continued on its way to space before plummeting back to the ground on a pre-programmed trajectory. As the booster fell through the air, its engine fired up again, and eventually brought the somewhat singed rocket to a standstill on the desert floor.



Flight controllers cheered as the capsule separated and both parts of the vehicle touched down. “Beautiful!” exclaimed a Blue Origin commentator.



The emergency escape system is for use should a glitch ever endanger a future crew onboard the snub-nosed rocket. As soon as a life-threatening problem is detected, the capsule would ignite its own rocket engine and blast a safe distance away from the booster. The capsule would then release parachutes to stabilise and slow its descent.



Engineers were not convinced the booster would survive the violence of the separation, but in the test, the rocket appeared to be unharmed and continued on its course into space. When the capsule separated, its rocket engine will have roasted the booster with 70,000 pounds of thrust. 



Writing on his blog before the launch, Jeff Bezos called the flight “our toughest test yet” and said that if the booster survived the ordeal, they would reward it with a retirement party. “Our next flight is going to be dramatic, no matter how it ends,” he wrote. The in-flight test of the escape system follows a run of tests on the ground and on the launchpad.

Named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the New Shepard rocket and capsule are intended for suborbital flights into space. Bezos wants to start launching tourists in the years ahead and hopes to keep costs down by making the rockets reusable. </s> Image copyright BLUE ORIGIN Image caption The capsule pushes itself up and away from the booster

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has furthered his ambition to launch people into space by practising a critical safety manoeuvre on his New Shepard vehicle.

The rocket and capsule system launched normally from its Van Horn, Texas, desert pad on Wednesday but then made an early separation during the ascent.

A motor in the capsule pushed it clear to parachute back to the ground.

The “abort” simulated what would happen if the booster were ever to develop a problem as it climbed into the sky.

Before Mr Bezos’ Blue Origin company starts putting people on the New Shepard system, there has to be confidence that lives can be saved in the event of an emergency.

New Shepard is a sub-orbital vehicle - that is, it delivers sufficient thrust to put its capsule only briefly into space.

Image copyright BLUE ORIGIN Image caption The New Shepard system is designed to be totally re-usable

What is remarkable about New Shepard is that it is totally re-usable - both the booster and the capsule.

Ordinarily, boosters are expendable. It is only recently that rocket vehicles have started to fly themselves back to Earth after a flight for a new mission.

The booster used in Wednesday’s outing was making its fifth flight. Before the test, Blue Origin said it was unlikely to survive the demonstration due to the instability that is introduced by a mid-flight escape of the capsule.

But the booster had no difficulty handling the disruption of the abort manoeuvre and brought itself down under control. It will now be put on show in a museum.

Mr Bezos plans to take fare-paying passengers who want to ride New Shepard on short hops above the atmosphere.

Scientists will also be given the opportunity to fly experiments in the capsule. These are studies that need to be run in a weightless environment, which the capsule will experience at the top of its arc.

The online retail entrepreneur also plans to build a much bigger rocket system that he will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The booster for this, called New Glenn after the famous American astronaut John Glenn, should make its maiden flight before the end of the decade, Mr Bezos says.

Image copyright BLUE ORIGIN Image caption The New Shepard booster lifts away from the Texas pad

Image copyright BLUE ORIGIN Image caption The capsule has flown six times now and will also be retired to a museum

Image copyright BLUE ORIGIN Image caption It made its return on three large parachutes

Image copyright BLUE ORIGIN Image caption The booster came back shortly afterwards

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos </s> Rocket company Blue Origin pulled off a double success on Wednesday, coming a step closer to launching people into space.

The aerospace startup led by Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos tested the escape system of its space capsule on Wednesday in remote West Texas. Forty-five seconds into the flight, the capsule popped off as if it were a Champagne cork, propelled by an escape motor mounted underneath.

Not only did the empty capsule land safely under parachutes four minutes after liftoff, the rocket managed to fly back and land upright. This was the first inflight test of the emergency escape system, designed to save lives if something goes wrong with the rocket during liftoff, and the first test of its kind in the United States since the 1960s.

Blue Origin’s launch commentators called it an “epic flight” from beginning to end. Mr. Bezos had warned in advance that the booster rocket probably would end up crashing back to Earth, after being jolted by the 70,000 pounds of force exerted by the escape system. Instead, the booster made what looked to be a fine vertical touchdown seven minutes after liftoff, just a few kilometres from its launch pad.

“Wow. There it is. There you go, New Shepard. Look at her,” launch commentator Ariane Cornell exclaimed once the booster landed. “What an extraordinary test and a tremendous final flight for both craft.”

Mr. Bezos has said that by 2018, Blue Origin could start carrying paying passengers to more than 100 kilometres above Earth, high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the planet against the blackness of space.

Blue Origin has not yet set a price for its space trips, but a competitor, Virgin Galactic, is selling tickets to fly on its six-passenger, two-pilot SpaceShipTwo for $250,000 (U.S.).

Blue Origin is working on a larger orbital rocket, called New Glenn, that will compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other companies for commercial satellite launches and human space transportation services.

Unlike Mr. Musk, who wants to colonize Mars, Mr. Bezos’s vision is to shift energy-intensive, heavy industry into orbit and preserve Earth for human life.

Mr. Bezos said he has invested more than $500-million in Blue Origin and that he would continue to finance it “for as long as necessary.”

The rocket and capsule system tested are intended for suborbital flight and are called New Shepard after the first American in space, Alan Shepard. Mr. Bezos hopes to launch the first test flight with humans as early as next year, followed by tourists and other paying customers. The capsule could hold up to six people.

Blue Origin is aiming for reusability to lower launch costs. After the capsule darted away at about 640 kilometres an hour, the rocket kept going up, reaching more than 73 kilometres high, before descending to the desert floor.

This rocket has flown five times and is now bound for a museum along with the capsule. The capsule also had flown before, including a launch-pad escape test, minus a rocket, in 2012.

Based in Kent, Wash., Blue Origin has taken over a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for future orbital flights. That newly unveiled system, still in development, is called New Glenn for the first American to orbit Earth, John Glenn.

While SpaceX has landed some of its first-stage boosters at Cape Canaveral or just offshore on a floating platform – all of them used in orbital missions – it has yet to reuse any of these recovered rockets. It had hoped to do so by year’s end, but an explosion on the launch pad during testing on Sept. 1 has put everything on hold. Both the SpaceX Falcon rocket and its payload, an Israeli satellite, were destroyed. </s> MIAMI: Blue Origin, the aerospace company headed by Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos, ran a successful test Wednesday of an emergency escape function, aimed at saving space travelers’ lives in case of catastrophe.

The New Shepard rocket blasted off from a Texas launchpad, then its unmanned capsule separated in mid-air about 45 seconds after liftoff, at a height of some 16,000 feet (4,900 meters).

Powered by an escape motor beneath the capsule, the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft tossed and tumbled a bit before floating back to Earth with the help of parachutes.

“All astronauts on board would have had a pretty exhilarating ride, but a safe ride,” said a commentator on Blue Origin’s live webcast.

Ahead of the launch, Bezos said the force of the capsule’s escape would likely spell the end for the booster, or the portion of the rocket that propels the capsule to space.

“The booster was never designed to survive an in-flight escape,” Bezos wrote in a blog post before the launch, noting that prior to Wednesday’s launch, the booster had already been flown four times.

“The capsule escape motor will slam the booster with 70,000 pounds of off-axis force delivered by searing hot exhaust.”

However, cheers erupted at mission control as the somewhat scorched and battered looking booster made its way back to Earth as if in reverse, its engines firing as it hovered over the ground and gradually set itself down, upright.

Both Blue Origin and its competitor, SpaceX, are capable of landing their rockets back on land, as part of a larger effort to make rocket parts reusable in the coming years.

Bezos said the company plans a retirement party for the booster, which was Blue Origin’s first to fly into space and return for an upright landing, before putting it on display in a museum.

The New Shepard rocket is designed to eventually carry space tourists to the edge of space — defined as the Karman line about 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s sea level — and back, perhaps as early as 2018.

The cost of a ticket has not yet been revealed. -AFP </s> Aug. 27 (UPI) -- After an aborted attempt earlier this week, SpaceX's Starhopper test vehicle completed its highest flight yet Tuesday, taking off and landing at a launch site on the Texas coast.

In less than 2 minutes, the vehicle rose nearly 500 feet into the air, traveled to a landing pad 328 feet away and descended, landing in an upright position.

The Starhopper is the test prototype for SpaceX's Starship, a fully reusable second stage and space vehicle that will be integrated into the company's BFR "Super Heavy" rocket. Once in space, Starship will be used to launch and land from other planets and satellites -- from the moon to Mars, for example.

SpaceX attempted to launch the Starhopper on Monday, but officials aborted the test flight after the craft's methane-burning Raptor rocket engine failed to ignite.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that a wiring problem inside the engine's igniter was to blame for the engine failure.

"Raptor uses dual redundant torch igniters," Musk tweeted. "Better long-term, but more finicky in development."

The test site from which the Starhopper launched is adjacent to Boca Chica Village, Texas, a small town 20 miles east of Brownsville. Residents were warned that a malfunction during the test flight could trigger an overpressure event strong enough to blow out windows in nearby homes.

The warning advised residents to go outside during the test flight.

"At a minimum, you must exit your home or structure and be outside of any building on your property....to avoid or minimize the risk of injury," officials warned residents, according to the Brownsville Herald.

Starhopper made its initial untethered flight, rising 65 feet into the air, last month. Flaming debris from that flight ignited brush fires the scored 100 acres in South Texas' Las Palomas Wildlife Management Refuge.

Tuesday's test flight will be the last for this particular prototype. Later this year, SpaceX will begin testing larger prototypes at suborbital heights. </s> Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to make history this evening by sending its first recycled rocket back into space.

In what could be a 'revolutionary' achievement for space technology, the firm is reusing a booster that previously sent food and supplies to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

The launch of the Dragon cargo ship is scheduled from Cape Canaveral for 6:27 pm eastern time today (11:27 pm BST).

Reusable rockets would cut costs and waste in the space industry, which currently loses millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery after each launch. Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency are also developing similar technology and are in testing stages. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and owner of The Washington Post newspaper, said last month that Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of the New Shepard, the company's flagship rocket, next year and begin flying paying passengers as early as 2018. The Indian space agency also hopes to develop its own frugal shuttle, as it seeks to cash in on a huge and lucrative demand from other countries to send up their satellites, after a successful test launch last month.

Standing tall at the Nasa launchpad, the white Falcon 9 rocket contains the tall, column-like booster stage of the vessel.

This propelled the unmanned Dragon cargo ship to the ISS last year, before returning to an upright landing on an ocean platform.

SpaceX is hoping to repeat this success and prove the long-term viability of reusable rockets - which could dramatically costs and waste in the space industry.

The firm plans to launch during a 2.5 hour window that begins at 6pm local time.

Its goal is to send the SES-10 satellite - built by Airbus Defence and Space - into orbit around the planet.

The satellite will be used to provide direct-to-home television and high-speed data services across Latin America and the Caribbean.

SES was an early supporter of SpaceX, the rocket builder's first commercial customer and the first to sign up for a ride on a 'flight proven' booster.

'Having been the first commercial satellite operator to launch with SpaceX back in 2013, we are excited to once again be the first customer to launch on SpaceX's first ever mission using a flight-proven rocket,' Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES, said.

'We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight, and make access to space more efficient in terms of cost and manifest management.'

The Dragon, which was first launched on April 8, 2016, was the first the firm managed to land on a droneship.

After recovery, it was taken back to Port Canaveral and subjected to a detailed post flight inspection.

It was then refurbished, tested again and prepared for its second launch.

On Monday, the firm test fired the nine first-stage engines of the previously flown Falcon 9 booster stage in the final pre-flight test in anticipation of today's launch.

'Static fire test complete. Targeting Thursday, March 30 for Falcon 9 launch of SES-10,' the firm tweeted following the tests.

In the test, the rocket's nine Merlin 1D engines roared to life at 2 p.m. EDT (GMT-5) for three seconds at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

Known as a 'hot-fire' test, it is a routine pre-flight procedure for SpaceX to help engineers verify the rocket is ready for launch.

SpaceX has made 13 attempts to recover first stages after launch, successfully bringing back eight boosters to date.

The first stage assigned to the SES-10 mission was first launched on April 7, 2016, helping boost a SpaceX cargo ship into orbit to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The first stage completed SpaceX’s second successful landing, its first on a droneship. After recovery, the stage was hauled back to Port Canaveral and subjected to a detailed post flight inspection. It was then refurbished, tested again and prepared for its second launch. It was the fifth attempt at landing the rocket upright - a feat that could pave the way for cheaper space travel. SpaceX has succeeded in landing its Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Atlantic ocean. It was the firm's fifth attempt at landing the rocket upright It follows four failed landings by SpaceX on an autonomous barge, and one successful landing on solid ground in December. Before coming back down to Earth, the rocket launched nearly 7,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, including an inflatable 'space house'. Elon Musk hailed the landing as 'another step to the stars,' at a Nasa press conference. He revealed the firm plans to relaunch the same rocket. 'We're going to wash it down, fill it with fuel, and launch it again,' he said. 'The plan is to bring it to port, pick it up with a crane and fold the legs up and put it on a truck to bring it back to Pad 39A. 'We'll do ten test firings, and if that goes well and we think we'll be comfortable with an orbital flight.' Musk revealed how tough the landing was, saying there were winds of 50mph at sea above the drone ship. 'The craft tilted into the wind as it descended due to 50mph wind,' he said. He said future landings were expected to be half on ground and half at sea.

Five of those landed on off-shore drone ships while three returned to landings at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Last month amazing video shows the historic moment the first stage of the Falcon 9 touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on the launch pad.

The SpaceX rocket descended through the clouds before landing right in the middle of the pad, a perfect landing after a rocky start.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk captioned the video on Instagram: 'Baby came back'

The rocket has landed five other times successfully on sea platforms but this is the first time on land.

This is the first SpaceX mission to take off from the pad, and the first in Florida since last September.

One of the company's rockets exploded on another Cape Canaveral pad, severely damaging it.

It is also the third SpaceX rocket to land on solid ground.

The moment indicates that NASA's moonshot pad is back in business.

The rocket, which was sent up from the same spot from which astronauts flew to the moon 48 years ago, carried a Dragon supply ship containing food and other goods for the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The pad - at Launch Complex 39A - has been leased by SpaceX for the next six years. It was last used for NASA's final shuttle mission nearly six years ago.

After it had launched from Launch Complex 39A and made the payload, the booster rocket was returned safely to earth at a different part of Cape Canaveral.

That made it the third SpaceX rocket to be successfully landed on solid ground, and the first to do so in daylight. Five other successful landings have been made on sea-based platforms. </s> Aug. 27 (UPI) -- SpaceX will once again attempt to launch its Starhopper test vehicle. Monday's test flight was aborted after the craft's methane-burning Raptor rocket engine failed to ignite.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that a wiring problem inside the engine's igniter was to blame for the engine failure.

"Raptor uses dual redundant torch igniters," Musk tweeted. "Better long-term, but more finicky in development."

Tuesday's attempt is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. ET. The launch will be streamed live online by several different sources.

The Starhopper is the test prototype for SpaceX's Starship, a fully reusable second stage and space vehicle that will be integrated into the company's BFR "Super Heavy" rocket. Once in space, Starship will be used to launch and land from other planets and satellites -- from the moon to Mars, for example.

If all goes as planned, Tuesday's test flight will see the vehicle ascend to 492 feet before executing a controlled descent to a landing pad 328 feet away.

The test site from which the Starhopper will launch is adjacent to Boca Chica Village, Texas, a small town 20 miles east of Brownsville. Residents were warned that a malfunction during the test flight could trigger an overpressure event strong enough to blow out windows in nearby homes.

The warning advised residents to go outside during the test flight. According to the written warning, a siren will sound ten minutes prior to the launch.

"At a minimum, you must exit your home or structure and be outside of any building on your property....to avoid or minimize the risk of injury," officials warned residents, according to the Brownsville Herald.

Starhopper made its initial untethered flight, rising just 65 feet into the air, last month. Flaming debris from that flight ignited brush fires the scored 100 acres in South Texas' Las Palomas Wildlife Management Refuge.

Tuesday's test flight will be the last for this particular prototype. Later this year, SpaceX will begin testing larger prototypes at suborbital heights. </s> SpaceX launched its sub-scale Starship “hopper” spacecraft on a brief unpiloted up-and-down test flight at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test facility Tuesday, a dramatic demonstration of rocket technology intended to pave the way to a new, more powerful heavy lift booster and, eventually, crew-carrying interplanetary spacecraft.

Running a day late because of a last-second technical glitch, the squat Starhopper’s powerful methane-fueled Raptor engine thundered to life at 6:02 p.m. EDT, pushing the stubby test vehicle straight up into a clear blue sky atop a jet of flame and a churning cloud of exhaust.

A drone’s eye view of SpaceX’s Starhopper test vehicle blasting off from the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test facility. SpaceX

The spacecraft, shaped a bit like R2-D2 from the “Star Wars” movies, appeared to reach its FAA-approved 492-foot (150-meter) altitude limit, moved sideways and slowly descended to an on-target touchdown at a nearby landing pad. The approximately one-minute flight was the rocket’s second “untethered” test following a July jump to an altitude of about 65 feet.

Soaring to an altitude of about 500 feet, the Starhopper test vehicle slewed sideways before descending. SpaceX

The hardware SpaceX is testing is intended for a fully reusable two-stage vehicle featuring a powerful first stage, dubbed the Super Heavy Rocket, and the winged Starship.

After an approximately one-minute flight, the test vehicle safely landed. SpaceX

The hopper is a sub-scale version of the Starship’s propulsion system, the first to utilize a SpaceX-designed Raptor engine burning cryogenic methane with liquid oxygen.

SpaceX said the new booster-Starship system eventually will replace the company’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets as well as the Cargo and Crew Dragon capsules used to deliver supplies and, eventually, astronauts to the International Space Station.

“SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy Rocket are designed to deliver satellites to Earth orbit and beyond, at a lower marginal cost per launch than our current Falcon vehicles,” the company says on its website.

With a 30-foot-wide payload compartment, the Starship will be able to launch larger payloads to Earth orbit than current rocket systems and deliver crews and supplies to the space station, the company says, adding that in the long term, Starship also will be able to deliver crews and cargo to the moon and, eventually, Mars.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said the company’s “aspirational goal” is to launch an initial cargo mission to Mars in 2022, followed by a crewed flight as early as 2024. Musk is expected to deliver an update on the rocket’s development soon and those targets could change.
Aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin tests its New Shepard reusable launch system in Van Horn, Texas.