Suborbital test flight moves Blue Origin closer to launching people
The privately-developed New Shepard booster, designed and built by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos's space company Blue Origin, took off from a launch pad in West Texas, briefly flew into space with an instrumented capsule, and returned to a rocket-assisted landing Sunday in another test before humans climb aboard the suborbital spaceship.
[...] A live webcast of the test flight provided by Blue Origin showed the vehicles coasting to an apogee of roughly 351,000 feet, or about 107 kilometers, around four minutes into the mission. The rocket achieved a top speed of around 2,200 mph (3,540 kilometers per hour), according to data released by Blue Origin. Ariane Cornell, who hosted Blue Origin's launch webcast, said engineers intended to "push the envelope" of the New Shepard's capabilities, aiming to reach an altitude of 350,000 feet, around 20,000 feet higher than the rocket's typical target. "That's the altitude we've been targeting for operations," Bezos tweeted after Sunday's flight.
The two vehicles then made their descents, and the New Shepard booster fell back through the atmosphere, deployed an airbrake and reignited its throttleable BE-3 engine to slow its velocity for touchdown. Four landing legs extended from the base of the New Shepard booster just before it settled gently on a landing pad around 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the rocket's launch site.
The rocket landed about seven minutes after liftoff, while the crew capsule deployed three parachutes and fired retro-rockets to cushion the craft's landing on the desert floor approximately 10 minutes after launch. A live view from a flying drone captured spectacular views of the capsule's final descent.
Also at TechCrunch.
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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin are looking to partner with NASA and ESA to help create settlements on the Moon. However, he implied that he would fund development of such a project himself if governments don't:
Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos says his Blue Origin space venture will work with NASA as well as the European Space Agency to create a settlement on the moon. And even if Blue Origin can't strike public-private partnerships, Bezos will do what needs to be done to make it so, he said here at the International Space Development Conference on Friday night.
[...] To facilitate a return to the moon, Blue Origin has a lunar lander on the drawing boards that's designed to be capable of delivery 5 tons of payload to the lunar surface. That's hefty enough to be used for transporting people — and with enough support, it could start flying by the mid-2020s. Blue Origin has proposed building its Blue Moon lander under the terms of a public-private partnership with NASA. "By the way, we'll do that, even if NASA doesn't do it," Bezos said. "We'll do it eventually. We could do it a lot faster if there were a partnership."
[...] It's important to point out that moon settlement isn't just a NASA thing. Bezos told me he loves the European Space Agency's approach, known as the Moon Village. "The Moon Village concept has a nice property in that everybody basically just says, look, everybody builds their own lunar outpost, but let's do it close to each other. That way, if you need a cup of sugar, you can go over to the European Union lunar outpost and say, 'I got my powdered eggs, what have you got?' ... Obviously I'm being silly with the eggs, but there will be real things, like, 'Do you have some oxygen?' "
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 30 2018, @06:21PM (2 children)
Oy! But this is all still so primitive.. Somebody dig up Buster Crabbe
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Monday April 30 2018, @06:28PM
Yes, slick. I can't wait until Musky achieves suborbital flight.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 30 2018, @07:07PM
Yawn! Let me know when they can put something in orbit.
(In the orbit the customer specified.)
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday April 30 2018, @07:10PM (6 children)
> approximately 10 minutes after launch
How much would it cost to add a giant glider wing to deploy after going about 90% of the way down?
Given the 6-figure price tag, a few minutes of high-g, followed by weightlessness is cool, but some acrobatic maneuvers would be a better finish than simply hanging from a parachute.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday April 30 2018, @08:46PM (5 children)
You seem to treat the efforts of Blue Origin as if it is a giant / expensive amusement park ride instead of a serious space technology company.
Oh, wait.
It is an amusement park ride into space.
Nevermind. Carry on.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 30 2018, @09:17PM (4 children)
The company's New Glenn [wikipedia.org] will be a serious rocket, and they are likely to license their BE-4 rocket engine [wikipedia.org] to ULA.
You need to read about this stuff before you post bullshit.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 01 2018, @02:43AM (2 children)
OK. Like I said in another post. Wake me when they can put something into orbit.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday May 01 2018, @02:49AM (1 child)
The BE-4 is one of the most powerful rocket engines ever built. They could stop pursuing rockets and just build engines, and they would still be a serious company.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 01 2018, @03:46PM
I think the millionaire thrill ride formed my perceptions early on. Especially in light of SpaceX successes during the same time. My perception was also colored by the bragging about "firsts" while SpaceX actually did some of those "firsts" without realizing they needed to make a big deal of it.
But I am willing to take them seriously based on what you describe.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday May 01 2018, @04:55AM
> You need to read about this stuff before you post bullshit.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/04/blue-origin-flies-for-the-eighth-time-ticket-sales-to-begin-soon/ [arstechnica.com]
Yes, Glenn is serious, but Shepard is designed and marketed to be a millionaire's thrill ride.