On Sunday at 10:15 am ET, Jeff Bezos' private spaceflight company Blue Origin will, for the first time, host a live webcast of its attempt to launch and land its fourth New Shepard rocket its West Texas facility.
New Shepard launch set for Sunday at 10:15 am ET. Live webcast starts at 9:45 am ET at https://t.co/WTXblOKlvk#GradatimFerociter
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 17, 2016In November 2015, Blue Origin became the first company to vertically land a rocket back on Earth after launching it into space. The company hopes to carry tourists to suborbital space 62 miles above Earth with these relatively inexpensive, reusable rockets, Popular Science reports.
Bezos said that the New Shepard could start carrying tourists into space as early as 2018. There, they will experience a few seconds in the weightlessness of microgravity.
In the past, Blue Origin has been pretty tight-lipped about its activities. The company hardly ever gave interviews about its work, and the first few test flights of the New Shepard weren’t publicized until after they had wrapped up, The Verge reports.
But now it seems that the secretive company is finally lifting the veil on its operations, embracing a more transparent approach.
The launch was originally scheduled for Friday, but due to a problems with the rocket's capsule, Blue Origin rescheduled the launch for Sunday.
Replacing leaking O-ring in capsule’s nitrogen gas pressurization system. Rescheduling flight to Sunday. #GradatimFerociter
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 16, 2016On Sunday, Blue Origin will test the safety of its crew capsule intended to safely carry passengers back to Earth.
As the reusable rocket booster eases itself back to the launch pad, three parachutes will carry a crew capsule safely to the ground. The crew capsule will also be outfitted with retro boosters and a “crushable structure” in the event of an emergency.
Blue Origin will find out what happens to an uncrewed capsule if two of three parachutes fail. Bezos said that he expects the capsule will be able to handle this sort of emergency.
The live webcast of Sunday's launch, which you can find at BlueOrigin.com, will begin around 9:45 am ET on Sunday.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
DON'T MISS: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a clever idea to get more people to work on space technology
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Here’s first-hand footage of what it's like to ride a reusable rocket