Bezos' New Shepard takes off and escorts itself back to the landing pad (video)

Since being awarded $22 million from NASA to develop a commercial space vehicle, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has been relatively quiet. There's been a couple of test flights, one of which didn't end so well for the water tank-shaped ship, but we haven't actually gotten to see the New Shepard (a nod to Alan Shepard) in action. Well friends, take a gander after the break to see the reusable, suborbital launch vehicle climb a short distance into the air then gracefully settle back down with the aid its landing thrusters. This particular craft is meant to launch a separate passenger capsule on short suborbital flights, but Blue Origin is also working on an orbital vehicle. But, please, don't waste any more time -- go watch the take off and landing below.

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Bezos' New Shepard takes off and escorts itself back to the landing pad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Nov 2011 02:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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