Following the Successful Takeoff and Landing of the New Shepard Rocket, Jeff Bezos Is Hot on Elon Musk's Heels

As the world closely followed Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos made significant progress on his own space project Blue Origin. The New Shepard rocket made a successful takeoff and landing on its test flight and is now closer to sending astronauts into space. On Wednesday, Bezos' Blue Origin launched the New Shepard NS-15 rocket from its base in Texas and managed to land it safely. The spacecraft is a combination space capsule and reusable rocket, which the company plans to take astronauts and civilian crew members on commercial trips into space. Related: This is the completely civil crew that will go into space with SpaceXAfter taking off and making a short flight, the capsule landed on the platform with the help of three parachutes. Contrary to recent SpaceX launches, which have suffered accidents such as strange explosions, the New Shepard NS-15 capsule landed intact on the platform, proving that Jeff Bezos' spacecraft is reusable. As featured on today's #NewShepard webcast, Caitlin takes us on a tour of Launch Site One for the first time. Take a look at what astronauts will see and do before their flight to space. pic.twitter.com/ZASlxqADYj - Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2021The test flight of the New Shepard had only one passenger on board in the capsule: a mannequin named Skywalker. It also contained more than 25,000 postcards written by young people where they expressed their dreams and wishes for the coming years. The postcards were part of an initiative from Club for the Future, a non-profit organization founded by Blue Origin. Related: Elon Musk publishes a photograph of Mars and people already think that a flying Tesla is seenThe next step: Send humans into spaceShortly before launch, a group of astronauts boarded the Blue Origin rocket for operational tests. The simulated crew members entered the capsule, settled into their seats, closed the hatch, and did a communications check. Minutes before takeoff, the astronauts exited the capsule and, after the successful flight and landing of the New Shepard NS-15, re-entered to test the opening of the hatch and the exit of the capsule at the landing site. Related: The rare photo that shows Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos having dinner 17 years ago (before their long rivalry broke out)Here is the complete video of the test flight of the New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' aerospace company: