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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched its New Shepard rocket for the fourth time this yr however, regardless of carrying the billionaire founder in a crew on the final flight, Thursday’s mission didn’t carry folks contained in the capsule.

Generally known as NS-17, this New Shepard mission is devoted to carrying cargo. Blue Origin flew a NASA lunar lander expertise demonstration and 18 buyer analysis payloads contained in the capsule — in addition to an artwork set up on the highest of the capsule.

The rocket launched from Blue Origin’s personal facility in West Texas. It reached a most altitude of 347,430 ft (or 105.6 kilometers) earlier than returning to Earth safely. The NS-17 mission lasted 10 minutes and 38 seconds from launch to capsule touchdown.

This New Shepard rocket booster, which is reusable, launched and landed for an eighth time. The booster and capsule for NS-17 are devoted to flying cargo missions, with Blue Origin rotating it with one other booster and capsule for crew missions. The corporate expects to launch its second crew flight earlier than the top of the yr.

Whereas the corporate has not disclosed pricing, New Shepard competes with Virgin Galactic within the realm of suborbital area tourism. Bezos final month mentioned Blue Origin has bought almost $100 million value of tickets for future passenger flights.