Washington. April 15. INTERFAX-The reusable American rocket New Shepard, created to send people to the edge of space and back, on Wednesday made another successful test suborbital flight, said the developer company Blue Origin.
The launch of the 18-meter rocket, consisting of an accelerator and a descent capsule, which is intended in the future for commercial flights of tourists to an altitude of about 100 km, was carried out at 19: 49 Moscow time from the launch site of the company in Van Horn (Texas).
After climbing to an altitude of about 105 km, the lander separated from the carrier, which contained a dummy named Skywalker.
The landing on the capsule's parachutes and the controlled vertical landing on the launch pad of the carrier took place normally.
This is the 15th test of the reusable system of the company Blue Origin billionaire Jeff Bezos, who is the founder of Amazon.
According to Blue Origin, the NS-15 mission was the next stage of testing before the start of human flights.
The New Shepard system is a manned capsule that launches vertically using a single-stage reusable launch vehicle and then lands using parachutes. The sealed capsule is designed for six people, it is equipped with an emergency rescue system and parachutes.
After a vertical acceleration by a launch vehicle lasting 110 seconds, the capsule separates at an altitude of 40 kilometers and ascends by inertia to an altitude of more than 100 kilometers, conventionally accepted as the boundary between the atmosphere and space. At the same time, the passengers of the capsule, whose flight lasts a total of 10 minutes, can claim the title of astronaut, without making an orbital flight.
The launch vehicle makes an independent descent and vertical landing with the help of the main engine.
The system, which began development in 2006, is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to make a suborbital flight.
Blue Origin plans to launch the New Shepard rocket on its first human-powered flight at the end of the year or early next year.
