BLue Origin Rocket Lands as Capsule Passes Parachute-Failure Test

[Buster's Uncle]

Bezos Rocket Lands as Capsule Passes Parachute-Failure Test
Bloomberg  June 19, 2016






Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s space exploration company launched and landed an unmanned rocket with a planned parachute failure Sunday, a key step in testing the safety of its New Shepard vehicle before sending it to space with people on board.

This was the fourth time the same Blue Origin LLC rocket flew to suborbital space and returned to Earth intact. But it was the first incorporating a planned failure of landing equipment, to test redundancies meant to protect the vehicle and passengers.

The capsule, which would carry astronauts in a manned mission, landed successfully with two instead of its typical three drogue parachutes in West Texas on Sunday at 9:46 a.m. local time. The capsule and the rocket split after takeoff and landed separately.

The rocket itself doesn’t use parachutes. Instead, it uses wings and refires its engine to slow its descent. It landed successfully before the capsule at 9:43, about 7 minutes after takeoff.

It was the first Blue Origin launch broadcast live on the Internet.


https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/bezos-rocket-lands-capsule-passes-150634441.html?nhp=1