New Shepard Mission 9
Couple of takeaways:
- That sucker went really high. Just a little shy of 120 kilometers.
- This test—assuming all reviews are good—proved out New Shepard’s full-envelope-and-then-some escape ability. Very impressive.
- The booster landing is so slow and controlled, yet they don’t really seem to aim for the center point, which I find a bit odd.
- The capsule touched down really close to the pad. I wonder if that was deliberate, and if so, whether the capsule maneuvers a little on its way back down. Once the chutes are open, I’m not sure how much maneuvering capability there is, if any at all, but this touchdown didn’t seem like a mistake.