WATCH: Rocket Goes To Space, Lands Back Safely Upright In Texas

Blue Origin, a private spaceflight company owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, successfully launched a rocket to low Earth orbit and landed it back safely and upright Monday in western Texas.

The New Shepard space vehicle, which included a rocket and capsule for a crew, reached 329,839 feet above the Earth, just beyond the boundary of what scientists consider to be technically “space,” and separated from the capsule, which wasn’t carrying any humans.

The rocket reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, landing upright and intact back at the remote launch site near Van Horn, Texas.

The launch and landing was not disclosed publicly until after the fact by the notoriously secretive Blue Origin, but nearby residents reported hearing a loud boom Monday morning. Now we know what that was all about.

The landing was an important step towards building a fully reusable rocket, which would significantly reduce the cost of going to space.

SpaceX, the rival private space company run by Elon Musk, has been trying to do the same thing but from a much higher altitude.

Watch the Blue Origin landing below: