Space Race

Amazon leaps ahead in the ongoing corporate space race:

Blue Origin, the private space firm owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, has just dropped a huge gauntlet in the race to develop a reusable rocket. It just launched its New Shepard space vehicle, consisting of a BE-3 rocket and crew capsule, to the edge of space at a suborbital altitude of 62 miles. The capsule then separated and touched down beneath a parachute, but more importantly, the BE-3 rocket also started its own descent. After the rockets fired at nearly 5,000 feet, it made a controlled vertical landing at a gentle 4.4 mph.

With all the billions of dollars of tax money they consume each year, NASA hasn't been able to do anything remotely like this. I guess they're too busy making Muslims feel good about their lack of accomplishments.

This is what happens when corporations compete with each other: stuff gets accomplished. There's money to be made in orbital space. Big, BIG money. They know it. That's why entrepreneurs like Bezos are dumping so much of their personal capital into it: the payoff will be measured not in billions of dollars but in trillions. Amazon has effectively conquered retail sales in the United States and Canada. Next up: PrimeSpace.