Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has finally revealed how its upcoming New Glenn rocket will launch and then reuse a rocket stage by landing it back on Earth. The process, detailed in a computer animation on Tuesday, sure looks familiar, and not just because the creepy animated humans were used in the company's last video.
It clearly resembles the same process that SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket goes through for that company's launches. SpaceX has successfully landed a rocket stage both on land and at sea multiple times in order to demonstrate reusability, which Elon Musk and Bezos see as the key to lowering the costs of spaceflight.
Maybe the Blue Origin video will give Elon Musk a chance to shoot a zinger at Bezos in their battle of one-upmanship?
The New Glenn would be one of the most powerful rockets ever built, with about 3.85 million pounds of thrust, and may compete with a more powerful version of SpaceX's Falcon 9, known as the Falcon Heavy.
Blue Origin is now focusing on its first launch, scheduled for 2020, and its first customer payload for France's satellite operator Eutelsat, currently scheduled(opens in a new tab) for 2021 or 2022.
