Jeff Bezos' Space Company Blue Shepherd Successfully Lands Unmanned Rocket
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' private space company successfully landed its unmanned Blue Shepherd rocket for the fourth time.
Bezos' company Blue Origin wants to pioneer space tourism by offering customers a ride to what's known as suborbital space. That's the area about 62-miles above Earth's surface. The company plans to make the first trip with passengers in about two years, but Elon Musk's company Space X has similar goals.
Eric Stallmer, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation says there's room for both.
"Especially this early in what they're setting out to do, and I think that the high tide floats a lot of boats," Stallmer told KCBS.
Space tourism is the headline grabber, but the immediate appeal is the low cost of launching satellites into space. Space X has a bit of a head start here.
The goal for both companies right now is to make launching and landing reusable rockets reliable and mundane.
"The key to both of them is reusability. We've never had that in the space industry, and that's going to really drive down the cost," Stallmer said.
