Thanks for the update grubstake.
Blue Origin had a test flight yesterday of the New Shepard Rocket, launching the Crew Capsule 2.0 for the first time. Not sure why it wasn't broadcast live.
A little background on Blue Origin. It is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of Amazon.com. They have been doing some very cool rocket developments including landing and reusing the rocket. They have been around a fair while but moving at a much slower pace than Spacex. Their motto explains the slower progress. "Gradatim Ferociter", Latin for "Step by Step, Ferociously".
They did claim to have the first rocket into space to re land but in reality they barely went to the edge of space and back. Meanwhile SpaceX is launching commercial payloads into LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and re landing the first stage. Plus... they did it first.
Their rockets, New Glenn and New Shepard are named for famous astronauts.
It is not clear in the video but the crew capsule fires rockets at the last second to soften the landing impact.
For more info search "Blue Origin" on Youtube.
This is the caption to the video.
New Shepard flew again for the seventh time on Dec. 12, 2017, from Blue Origins West Texas Launch Site. Known as Mission 7 (M7), the mission featured the next-generation booster and the first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0. Crew Capsule 2.0 features large windows, measuring 2.4 feet wide, 3.6 feet tall. M7 also included 12 commercial, research and education payloads onboard. Crew Capsule 2.0 reached an apogee of 322,405 feet AGL/326,075 feet MSL (98.27 kilometers AGL/99.39 kilometers MSL). The booster reached an apogee of 322,032 feet AGL/325,702 feet MSL (98.16 kilometers AGL/99.27 kilometers MSL).
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https://youtu.be/CSDHM6iuogI[/video]