 Blue Origin sent shockwaves through the space community when it announced it had landed its new Shepard rocket after sending it to the edge of space. It's the first time a commercial vertical rocket has taken off from the ground, gone to suborbital space, and then landed vertically back on Earth again. The feat was immediately compared to what SpaceX has been trying to do all year. The Elon Musk-led company has tried twice to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket after launching it into space, and the company hasn't had much luck in sticking the landing. But is it really fair to compare the two companies' landing techniques? Not exactly. For starters, the first stage of the Falcon 9 is tall and thin to create less drag when it's leaving Earth. We don't know the exact height and width of New Shepard, but it looks like it's about half the length of the Falcon 9 first stage. So overall it's a bit shorter and a bit more squat. That still doesn't make it easy to land, but it's better for balance. The Falcon 9 first stage goes to 124 miles above Earth before it detaches from the rest of the rocket and returns to the ground. New Shepard goes to 62 miles above Earth before it comes back, about half that distance. The Falcon 9 is also going a lot faster, between Mach 5.5 and Mach 7.5 when it starts its descent. New Shepard only reaches Mach 3. And the Falcon 9 has more than 1.5 million pounds of thrust behind it, while New Shepard reaches a maximum thrust of 100,000 pounds. The two rockets are just very different vehicles with very different purposes. The Falcon 9 is meant to launch payloads like satellites into lower Earth orbit, while New Shepard is meant to take passengers to the edge of space so they can experience weightlessness for four minutes. So the paths the vehicles take are drastically different. The Falcon 9 takes an arced route into space. SpaceX has to flip the first stage vertical again in order to land. That makes it a bit harder to land, it's prone to fall over. New Shepard stays mostly vertical during the entire trip. What Blue Origin did is a huge achievement, but saying that it accomplished what SpaceX is trying to do isn't exactly accurate. Plus, depending on how you define the word rocket, this isn't the first commercial vehicle to come back from space intact. Still, the bottom line is clear. The future of rockets is definitely reusability.
 Blue Origin sent shockwaves through the space community when it announced it had landed
 its new Shepard rocket after sending it to the edge of space.
 It's the first time a commercial vertical rocket has taken off from the ground, gone
 to suborbital space, and then landed vertically back on Earth again.
 The feat was immediately compared to what SpaceX has been trying to do all year.
 The Elon Musk-led company has tried twice to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket
 after launching it into space, and the company hasn't had much luck in sticking the landing.
 But is it really fair to compare the two companies' landing techniques?
 Not exactly.
 For starters, the first stage of the Falcon 9 is tall and thin to create less drag when
 it's leaving Earth.
 We don't know the exact height and width of New Shepard, but it looks like it's about
 half the length of the Falcon 9 first stage.
 So overall it's a bit shorter and a bit more squat.
 That still doesn't make it easy to land, but it's better for balance.
 The Falcon 9 first stage goes to 124 miles above Earth before it detaches from the rest
 of the rocket and returns to the ground.
 New Shepard goes to 62 miles above Earth before it comes back, about half that distance.
 The Falcon 9 is also going a lot faster, between Mach 5.5 and Mach 7.5 when it starts its descent.
 New Shepard only reaches Mach 3.
 And the Falcon 9 has more than 1.5 million pounds of thrust behind it, while New Shepard
 reaches a maximum thrust of 100,000 pounds.
 The two rockets are just very different vehicles with very different purposes.
 The Falcon 9 is meant to launch payloads like satellites into lower Earth orbit, while New
 Shepard is meant to take passengers to the edge of space so they can experience weightlessness
 for four minutes.
 So the paths the vehicles take are drastically different.
 The Falcon 9 takes an arced route into space.
 SpaceX has to flip the first stage vertical again in order to land.
 That makes it a bit harder to land, it's prone to fall over.
 New Shepard stays mostly vertical during the entire trip.
 What Blue Origin did is a huge achievement, but saying that it accomplished what SpaceX
 is trying to do isn't exactly accurate.
 Plus, depending on how you define the word rocket, this isn't the first commercial
 vehicle to come back from space intact.
 Still, the bottom line is clear.
 The future of rockets is definitely reusability.