Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin is one step closer to sending tourists into orbit after successfully completing the ninth test flight of its New Shepard rocket Tuesday from its test facility in west Texas. The single-stage rocket launched at 10:11 a.m. Central Daylight Time to perform a high-altitude test of an escape motor. The motor is a safety feature that would pull the crew/passenger capsule away from a failing booster. After reaching the edge of space, the capsule separated from the rocket booster and a few seconds later the escape motor fired, propelling the capsule laterally away from the main rocket.