This morning, Jeff Bezos had predicted an explosion: His hard working little rocket, the New Shepard, would go up in flames during its fifth-and final-launch. That's because this launch, unlike previous ones testing the rocket's ability to land, was an experiment of its escape system. The New Shepard is, like all rockets, a carefully contained catastrophe. It is also topped by a crew capsule, which needs a way to get clear of the booster should anything go wrong.

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