XBradTC

Which, it’s a pretty nifty trick.

Of course, Space-X is attempting the same approach, with less success so far. The difference is, Space-X is launching an orbital vehicle. The Blue Origin rocket was designed from the start as a suborbital vehicle. Its whole purpose is to send a tourist capsule on a ballistic arc similar to that of Alan Shepard’s 1961 Mercury flight.

Still, this is pretty impressive. What struck me was the high rate of descent until almost the last moment. But why not? The engine clearly has more than enough thrust to rapidly arrest the rate (since it is almost empty and thus weighs much less than at take-off) and using high thrust for a short time needs less fuel than medium thrust over a longer period, the reducing even more the bring back fuel required, thus lessening the thrust needed to arrest the rate of descent. Pretty elegant.