Blue Origin's New Shepard space system, designed to one day take paying customers to suborbital space, took flight from Texas on Thursday for an uncrewed test.
Why it matters: The company — founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos — is inching closer to launching its first customers.
Details: The launch marked the first test for an upgraded New Shepard capsule, equipped with temperature regulation, display panels and speakers with a microphone for future customers.
- It was also the first flight for this particular New Shepard booster.
- Blue Origin also flew "Mannequin Skywalker" — its flight test dummy — aboard the capsule to monitor the stresses future fliers might face.
- The rocket landed back on Earth while the capsule came back to the ground under parachutes after reaching more than 350,000 feet in altitude.
The big picture: Blue Origin isn't the only company working to get a piece of the suborbital space tourism market.
- Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is developing a space plane that will fly people to the edge of space and bring them back home.
