Jeff Bezos’s rocket company, Blue Origin, has launched Nasa experiments into space on a brief test flight. The New Shepard rocket blasted off from west Texas, hoisting a capsule containing the experiments.
The eight experiments were exposed to a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule parachuted down. The rocket also landed successfully, completing its fourth spaceflight.
This was Blue Origin’s 10th test flight, all precursors to launching passengers by the year’s end. The capsules have six windows, one for each customer.
Blue Origin is not taking reservations yet and is instead focusing on brief research flights.
Wednesday’s flight lasted just over 10 minutes, with the capsule reaching 106km high, well within the accepted boundary of space.
Bezos is the founder of Amazon.
