Blue Origin completes test flight from Texas

Blue Origin, the private space company founded by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, successfully completed its first test flight on Wednesday, Bezos announced today.

From the company's private launch site in western Texas, an unmanned New Shepard spacecraft launched to an altitude of 307,000 feet – or just to the edge of space – and returned to the ground intact with a parachute-assisted landing.

"Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return," Bezos said.

The company was unable to recover the vehicle's propulsion module, as the company hopes to do in the future.

Blue Origin is considering Cape Canaveral as a site for launches of a bigger orbital rocket in the next five years.

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