Dramatic aerial footage captures the landing of a Blue Origin rocket in the desert.
The future of rocketry is here. Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, recently launched a crew of space tourists on a 10-minute suborbital flight, reaching nearly 66 miles above Earth’s surface. Blue Origin’s big-windowed crew capsule parachuted down to the West Texas desert on April 14, while the separated reusable rocket booster’s engine refired to slow to some six mph for a soft touchdown on the pad. The company’s CEO, Dave Limp, shared high-resolution drone footage of the booster descending through the atmosphere, firing its powerful BE-3PM engine, which operates on liquid oxygen and hydrogen.
“That never gets old! A new perspective of the booster landing,” Limp posted on X.
At about 10 seconds into the video, you can see the booster kick up desert dust as it corrects its trajectory just above the surface and moves to the center of the launchpad, which features Blue Origin’s feather logo. (“The feather represents our relentless pursuit of the perfection of flight and the promise of a graceful and safe return to planet Earth, just like a feather’s gentle descent through our precious atmosphere,” the company explains.)
A view of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket booster landing on April 14, 2025. Credit: Blue Origin
Before landing, the booster launched the crew capsule holding Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, and four other passengers on the short all-female trip above the 62-mile Kármán line, which many use to define the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space. New Shepard, a successful high-altitude tourism endeavor for the select few who can afford such an adventure (the deposit alone costs $150,000 USD), isn’t Blue Origin’s only rocketry project. In January, the company achieved a successful maiden launch of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket, named for legendary U.S. astronaut John Glenn, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This rocket is powered by seven engines and will compete with the heavy-lift rockets of SpaceX, which has established itself as a leader in the rocket industry.
