Blue Origin become first to relaunch and land used rocket

VAN HORN , Texas, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Blue Origin completed a second flight with the same rocket they launched and landed in November, becoming the first company to successfully launch a reusable rocket.

The company shared video of the New Shepard rocket's second successful launch near its Texas facility on Friday.

The rocket flew 333,582 feet into the air before gently completing a vertical landing back on earth.

"Can a used rocket fly?" Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos tweeted as he released the video.

Blue Origin joined competitor SpaceX in their mission to create a reusable by successfully launching landing New Shepard in November.

They were able to surpass their fellow commercial space company when they relaunched New Shepard on Friday, bringing Blue Origin one step closer to achieving Bezos vision of "millions of people living and working in space".

Blue Origin was able to achieve the safe vertical landing by using an engine that balances out the rocket as it makes its decent back to earth.

Bezos explained that due to a principal known as the pendulum problem achieving this balance with larger space crafts in the future will require less effort.

"Since New Shepard is the smallest booster we'll ever build, this carefully choreographed dance atop oir plume will just get easier from here," he said.