It's a celebration.
On Monday, Blue Origin — founded by Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos — became the first private company to successfully land a reusable rocket that's traveled to and from space.
"Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle successfully flew to space, reaching its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet (100.5 kilometers) before executing a historic landing back at the launch site in West Texas," the company noted on the description of its YouTube account with an accompanying video, which captured the entire event.
With the successful launch and landing of its reusable rocket, Blue Origin not only exorcised its own demons by rebounding from a failed landing in April due to hydraulic issues, but also beat competitor SpaceX — founded by Elon Musk — to the punch.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket hasn't been able to stick a landing from space just yet. Although Musk took to his Twitter account Tuesday morning to congratulate Bezos and Blue Origin for the landing, he made sure to also remind his fellow billionaire that their rockets aren't quite traveling as high or fast as SpaceX's rockets and that there's a big difference between space and orbit.
"Getting to space needs ~Mach 3, but GTO orbit requires ~Mach 30," Musk tweeted. "The energy needed is the square, i.e. 9 units for space and 900 for orbit."
He added: "Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital VTOL flight began 2013. Orbital water landing 2014. Orbital land landing next."
It is true that Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket can reach sub-orbital space, while SpaceX's Falcon 9 can surpass orbital space, marking the difference that Musk was trying to steal Bezos's thunder with.
Nevertheless, Blue Origin's successful launch and landing is no small feat and a big step toward more accomplishments from the private company and potential space exploration.
