Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' next conquest: Outer space?

The billionaire's secretive aerospace company, Blue Origin, tests a new pusher rocket system

Jeff Bezos' rocket makes a successful launch on Oct. 19.
(Image credit: YouTube)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, having already conquered e-books and really fast shipping, has his sights on the stars. His privately owned, super-secretive aerospace company, Blue Origin, successfully tested a new rocket escape system on Friday, launching an emergency capsule prototype 2,307 feet into the air before deploying a landing parachute. (Watch the launch below.) "The Blue Origin team worked hard and smart to pull off this first test of our suborbital Crew Capsule escape system," wrote Bezos on the Blue Origin website. And it's not even the space firm's biggest accomplishment this month, says Space.com:

Earlier this month, the company conducted a test of the rocket engine that will blast the Space Vehicle to orbit, powering it up to its maximum 100,000 pounds of thrust on a stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

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