Amazon's Jeff Bezos successfully tests his New Shephard rocket that will take tourists into space
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The dawn of a new era of space travel may be upon us after Amazon's Jeff Bezos successfully tested a vehicle that will take tourists into space.
Mr Bezos' firm, called the Blue Origin company, has long spoken of its desire to take paying astronauts into the cosmos.
And now it has performed the first successful test of the vehicle they hope will make that dream a reality.
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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company has completed a successful spaceflight test in West Texas (shown). The New Shepard vehicle rose to a height of 58 miles (94km) - four miles short of space - before landing. It was unmanned, but will ultimately take six people into space
The test took place from the company's launch site in West Texas.
Called New Shepard, the vehicle consists of a main booster rocket and a six-seater capsule on top, standing 60ft (18 metres) tall.
For this, the first test flight of the entire architecture, it was unmanned - but the company hopes to soon start taking customers into space.
The cost of a ticket has not yet been announced, but estimates suggest it will be around £130,000 $200,000 - similar to a flight on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
The difference, however, is that while Galactic relies on using a plane to slowly rise into the atmosphere, New Shepard takes off straight up and lands back on the ground.
This is known as vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL).
And Blue Origin is also much more secretive - with this successful test flight taking many by surprise.
In video released by Blue Origin, the booster - using liquid hydrogen and oxygen - lifts the New Shepard vehicle to an altitude of 58 miles (94km).
This is four miles (six kilometres) short of the official boundary of space - the Karman Line - although there does not seem to be any problems with reaching this boundary in future.
Once it reached its peak altitude, accelerating at 3Gs, the booster separated from the capsule.
'The in-space separation of the crew capsule from the propulsion module was perfect,' Mr Bezso said in a blog post.
'Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return.'
The flight came as somewhat of a surprise because the company didn't make any announcements in the build up that it would be launching a rocket - unlike its rivals Virgin Galactic and SpaceX who are very open about the tests they will be performing
At peak altitude, 307,000ft (58 miles, 94km) up, the main booster separated from the capsule. On the left, the booster can be seen falling away, while on the right a distant view of the separation is seen. The booster failed to land successfully but the capsule landed without a hitch
Ultimately, the flights will enable six people to go to space. While in space, huge windows will give the customers a stunning view of Earth (artist's impression shown), and they'll also have several minutes of weightlessness, before the capsule falls to Earth and lands using parachutes
Here the capsule is seen returning to Earth on this test flight with its three parachutes. 'Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return,' Amazon's Jeff Bezos said in a blog post announcing the successful flight
The booster is designed to be able to land on the ground and be reusable, much like rival SpaceX's own reusable rocket system.
On this occasion, however, the booster lost pressure in its hydraulic system and was not recovered.
Mr Bezos said the firm was already working on an improved system to make sure the error doesn't happen again.
'Assembly of propulsion module serial numbers 2 and 3 is already underway - we'll be ready to fly again soon,' he said.
In a video a small crowd was seen watching the successful flight from the company's launch site in West Texas - but for the most part the launch was kept a secret
Jeff Bezos (pictured) is better known as the CEO and founder of Amazon, with a fortune of £22.5 billion ($34.7 billion). He founded his Blue Origin company in 2000
Combined, the booster and capsule stand 60ft (18 metres) tall, with a feather painted onto the side
This is the walkway astronauts will ultimately use when the company stars its manned flights
In this first test flight, the New Shepard vehicle rose to an altitude of 58 miles (94km). This is four miles (six kilometres) short of the official boundary of space - the Karman Line - although there does not seem to be any problems with reaching this boundary in future
The flight of the capsule, however, passed without a hitch and it successfully landed on the ground with the help of three parachutes.
The company is keen on VTVL because it is 'scalable to a very large size,' according to Mr Bezos.
And he noted that the company was already working on a larger vehicle, New Shepard's 'Very Big Brother', which is apparently many times New Shepard's size with five times as much thrust.
The company has not yet revealed when it's next flight will be, or when manned flights will begin.
But following this successful flight many will be expecting the company to go from strength to strength.
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