Blue Origin first successfully launched and landed the same New Shepard vehicle in 2015.
The flight took place on November 23, 2015, during New Shepard’s eighth development mission. The vehicle rose above the Kármán line, separated its capsule, and returned its booster to a powered vertical landing in West Texas.
This achievement was an important milestone for reusable rocketry because the booster both reached space and came back under its own power. SpaceX had landed a Falcon 9 booster earlier in December 2015, but Falcon 9 is an orbital-class rocket, whereas New Shepard is designed for short suborbital flights.
Blue Origin later reused the booster for additional tests and crewed missions. New Shepard’s capsule and booster are separate vehicles, so the capsule lands under parachutes while the propulsion module performs a powered landing.