https://www.space.com/40439-blue-origin-launches-new-shepard-2018-test-flight.html

30 April 29, 2018

"Blue Origin, the private space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its passenger spaceship New Shepard on a test flight Sunday (April 29), carrying a dummy astronaut and experiments on their highest spaceflight yet.

The New Shepard 2.0 rocket and capsule, which have both flown in space before, lifted off from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT). Despite several hours of delays (thunderstorms thwarted a 9:45 a.m. EDT launch target) and countdown holds for last-minute checks, the flight appeared to go flawlessly.

'Another spectacular test mission,' Ariane Cornell of Blue Origin said during a launch webcast. 'Everything looks nominal from here.'

Blue Origin launched New Shepard to a target altitude of 347,485 feet (105,913 meters), Cornell said after the launch. That's almost 66 miles (106 km), slightly higher than the company's typical target of 62 miles (100 km) — the altitude widely accepted as the boundary line for space, Cornell said.

'Today, we're going to push the system a little bit harder,' Cornell said during the launch webcast.

Sunday's launch marked the second flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard 2.0 vehicle (after a successful December 2017 test launch) and eighth test flight overall for the company's New Shepard program. An earlier version of New Shepard launched a series of missions in 2015 and 2016 before it was retired"