'Gradatim Ferociter"

Now this is an interesting story.

Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon has an interesting hobby codenamed Blue Origin.
He and his team have been :-

"working, patiently and step-by-step, to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. Accomplishing this mission will take a long time, and we’re working on it methodically. We believe in incremental improvement and in keeping investments at a pace that's sustainable. Slow and steady is the way to achieve results, and we do not kid ourselves into thinking this will get easier as we go along. Smaller, more frequent steps drive a faster rate of learning, help us maintain focus, and give each of us an opportunity to see our latest work fly sooner.

Our first objective is developing New Shepard, a vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle designed to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital journey into space."

His small frequent steps have achieved an outcome, a test flight!
Back in November last year the Goddard flew. Well it lifted, rose vertically to a height of 285ft, and landed safely.
Rather grainy video footage can be seen at Blue Origin.

On the strength of that test flight Bezos is looking to expand his team and is recruiting and offering internships for suitable American citizens.

My latin is pretty poor but I guess that Gradatim Ferociter translates something like step by step with ferocity?
So now NASA and Richard Branson have competition.

Who will you be flying with?

On a slightly lighter note boingboing pointed at this galaxy far, far away.
May the force be with you.

Update 12/1/07 In Search of Gradatim Ferociter
Update 25/1/07 Gradatim Ferociter the Search Goes On
Update 23/2/07 Competition for 'The Goddard'