Video: Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight company, recently released some amazing footage filmed during the third successful landing of its New Shepard suborbital rocket. The video shows the flight of the reusable booster from just ahead of reentry through descent and landing. The landing sequence was recorded by a vent camera located just below the booster’s ring fin.
The footage is gets incredibly cool when the shadow of the four-legged rocket appears in the right half of the moving picture, making the landing look like a scene from a science fiction movie.
The New Shepard rocket was launched on 2 April 2016 and reached the planned altitude of 103,369m. After the unmanned capsule had jettisoned, the rocket engine’s restarted at 1108m, and the booster began its controlled decent. For some useful context, here is the whole event filmed from a distance: