Update Thursday, 11:00 AM
The commercial space company Blue Origin will live-stream video of a rocket launch from its test site in West Texas for the first time this weekend.
The launch was originally planned for Friday, but the company's billionaire owner Jeff Bezos announced on Twitter it has been pushed to Sunday.
A live video stream from the company's website is scheduled to start at 8:45 AM CST, with the actual launch expected around 9:15 AM.
https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/743440703657648128
Earlier this week, Bezos announced that the public will be able to watch the launch in real time through the company’s website. It's a sign of the historically-secretive company opening up - in the past, Blue Origin didn't say anything about earlier rocket launches until after they had already happened.
The planned live stream is the latest in a series of more public steps from the company. Bezos announced the date of a test launch beforehand for the first time in April - and even live-tweeted during the launch - and in recent months he’s been talking more openly about the company’s progress developing reusable rocket technology.
Blue Origin is still selectively transparent - the company has never allowed reporters inside its sprawling West Texas facility.
Bezos previously announced that this new flight of the company's New Shephard spacecraft will test what happens when one of the craft’s crew capsule landing parachutes fails.
“We’re planning to demonstrate the redundancies built into the capsule on this re-flight of the vehicle by intentionally failing one drogue and one main parachute during descent,” Bezos said earlier this month. “This should occur around 7 ½ minutes into the flight at an altitude of 24,000 feet.”
