The American firm Blue Origin has safely launched and landed its New Shephard rocket for the fourth time, describing the mission test as ‘impeccable’.<br /><br /> The spaceflight company founded by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos carried out the operation from Texas, sending the rocket to an altitude of 100 kilometres.<br /><br /> The operation is said to have brought reusable rockets one step closer, which would dramatically reduce the costs of space flight.<br /><br /> Fourth flight. Same hardware. Reusable rockets love to fly. #RocketsReused #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/CaRQTI3dOI— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) June 19, 2016<br /><br /> It will do no harm either to Blue Origin’s goal of being the first private company to send tourists into space.<br /><br /> Built-in to the latest mission test was a deliberate hitch – the firm purposely failed to deploy one of the capsule’s main parachutes to see if it could make it back in one piece. The answer was yes.<br /><br /> Bezos has previously cited the Apollo 15 mission in 1971 when one parachute failed, to justify testing what’s thought to be an unlikely scenario.<br /><br /> Within 11 minutes of the launch, New Shephard’s rocket and crew capsule had soft-landed back to Earth.<br /><br /> Smooth landing with one chute out #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/tyipXecjV2— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) June 19, 2016<br />
