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posted by janrinok on Monday April 30 2018, @05:53PM   Printer-friendly

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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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 30 2018, @09:17PM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday April 30 2018, @09:17PM (#673926) Journal

    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.

    Since early 2015, the BE-4 has been in competition with the AR1 engine for the Atlas V RD-180 replacement program. While the BE-4 is a methane engine, the AR1, like the RD-180, is kerosene-fueled. In February 2016, the US Air Force issued a contract that provides partial development funding of up to US$202 million to ULA in order to support use of the Blue BE-4 engine on the ULA Vulcan launch vehicle.

    Initially, only US$40.8 million will be disbursed by the government with US$40.8 million additional to be spent by a ULA subsidiary on Vulcan BE-4 development. Up to US$536 million is being directly provided to Aerojet Rocketdyne to advance development of the AR-1 engine, an alternative for powering the Vulcan rocket.

    Bezos has noted, however, that the Vulcan launch vehicle is being designed around the BE-4 engine; ULA switching to the AR1 would require significant delays and money on the part of ULA. This point has also been made by ULA executives, who have also clarified that the BE-4 is likely to cost 40% less than the AR1, as well as have Bezos capacity to "make split-second investment decisions on behalf of BE-4, and has already demonstrated his determination to see it through. [whereas the] AR1, in contrast, depends mainly on U.S. government backing, meaning Aerojet Rocketdyne has many phone numbers to dial to win support".

    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)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 01 2018, @02:43AM (#674014) Journal

    OK. Like I said in another post. Wake me when they can put something into orbit.

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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday May 01 2018, @02:49AM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday May 01 2018, @02:49AM (#674017) Journal

      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

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 01 2018, @03:46PM (#674174) Journal

        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.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday May 01 2018, @04:55AM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @04:55AM (#674043)

    > 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.