Private Texas spaceport launches test rocket (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A remote West Texas spaceport being built and bankrolled by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos launched a test rocket Monday for the first time.

"There was a launch, a one- or two-minute event," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said from the agency's office in Oklahoma City. He had no details.

The exact nature of the 6:30 a.m. launch or the type of spacecraft was not immediately known.
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Blue Origin, based in the Seattle suburb of Kent, Washington, received FAA approval late this summer to begin its testing program. The secretive company has said it wants to use spacecraft that launch and land vertically.
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According to documents Blue Origin submitted to the FAA earlier this year, its New Shepard Resuable Launch Vehicle would be cone-shaped, about 50 feet tall and 22 feet in diameter at the base. It would consist of two stacked modules, one to provide propulsion, the other a crew capsule "capable of carrying three or more space flight participants," according to the report to the agency.
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(not much) more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/11/14/bezos.spaceport.ap/index.html

[BushOut06]

1. Perfect - let's put Bush & Cheney on the next launch - n/t

n/t