Rocket Report: Super Heavy lights up, China tries to recover a fairing

Enlarge (credit: Blue Origin)

Welcome to Edition 4.08 of the Rocket Report! It's been another big week for private spaceflight, which means I made my second trip in nine days to the El Paso airport. This time, I enjoyed getting to see Blue Origin's launch site in West Texas, and watching New Shepard launch in person. It's an impressively engineered vehicle that appears to offer a super smooth ride to space.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Jeff Bezos blasts off. Will Blue Origin follow? On Tuesday morning, the founder of Amazon fulfilled a lifelong dream of flying into space aboard a rocket and capsule he personally funded. "Best day ever," Bezos said after landing safely beneath three parachutes. "My expectations were high, and they were dramatically exceeded." It was a great day for Blue Origin and its beautifully engineered New Shepard launch system.

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