[butwhy]

So.. they beat spacex?

[wolf550e]

As Elon Musk wrote [1]:

  It is, however, important to clear up the difference between "space" and "orbit", as described well by https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

  Getting to space needs ~Mach 3, but GTO orbit requires ~Mach 30. The energy needed is the square, i.e. 9 units for space and 900 for orbit.

1 - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/669129655597731841

[andygates]

Of course, going slower means less acceleration, which means less high-G discomfort for paying passengers. A vertical hop makes perfect sense for meerkat-mission tourism.

[Symmetry]

Well, SpaceX landed their Grasshopped rocket after going up a kilometer. Then Blue Origin landed the New Shephard after going to space but not into orbit. And soon SpaceX might land their first stage after it goes to space and also pushes the second stage halfway to orbit. But in a sense SpaceShipOne had already done the same thing the New Shepard is doing and in another the Space Shuttle went all the way to orbit and back.

[krisoft]

This is a suborbital flight. SpaceX tries to recover the first stage from orbital launches.