Houston
A test rocket was fired this week from a private site in West Texas owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin, a company founded by Bezos, aims to commercialize space flight using a 50-foot-tall, reusable rocket capable of vertical takeoffs and landings and large enough to accommodate three or more passengers. The secretive company did not immediately confirm the test, described by a Federal Aviation Administration official as a "one- or two-minute event." But Blue Origin says in regulatory filings that it may conduct as many as 10 suborbital tests this year.