Secretive Space Vehicle Tested at Private Texas Site

[Mr. Analog]

That secretive rocket work being bankrolled by billionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com fame has shed some new light on its activities.

Blue Origin is developing New Shepard, a rocket-propelled vehicle that takes off and lands vertically and is designed to routinely fly multiple astronauts into suborbital space at competitive prices. 

Flight tests of the suborbital craft have been staged at a private launch site in Texas.

Blue Origin is now noting that, in addition to providing the public with opportunities to experience spaceflight, New Shepard will also provide frequent opportunities for researchers to fly experiments into space and a microgravity environment.

To help shape this activity, the group has announced that interested parties should contact Blue Origin's independent representative for research and education missions, Alan Stern, the former NASA chief of space science.

More info: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/081208-blue-origin-stern.html

What struck me as interesting (beyond the fact that Blue Origin is so far along with their rocketry) was the fact that they are building a vehicle that "takes off and lands vertically". No spash downs, no runways, very interesting!

If you want to know what the vehicle looks like, check out the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin_New_Shepard