Blue Origin just launched its crew capsule into space — and then intentionally brought it in for a very soft crash.
Blue Origin’s reusable rocket, which just made its fourth trip to space, hit 101,041.50m apogee. It then touched down easily, like we’ve seen in previous flights. But the real action on this test was to see what happened to the crew capsule it was carrying.
Instead of using three parachutes to soften its landing, Blue Origin intentionally failed one to see how it would do with just two. Blue Origin’s commentators during the event said that it would hit the ground at a speed of just 1-2 miles per hour, but the company’s speed monitor appeared to show it at around 32km per hour as it hit the ground.
Despite that heavy cloud of dust it kicked up at touchdown, the capsule appeared intact at the end. Although — for a full-workup of how the capsule did — we’ll need to wait until Blue Origin retrieves and checks out the capsule. Assuming all went well, that same rocket and capsule will go back up in a future test flight.