Blue Origin

[MartG]

Blue Origin carried out another test flight yesterday, with the new version of their capsule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDHM6iuogI&fe...

[Eric Mc]

The music is annoying. I hope there's an "unpackaged" version of the flight somewhere on youtube soon.

I like the drone shot though.

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

The music is annoying. I hope there's an "unpackaged" version of the flight somewhere on youtube soon.

I like the drone shot though.

Yes, there's one or two comments on there about the intrusive music

[MartG]

Didn't quite make it into space though - 322,405 feet or 98.266545km - so just short of the 100km Karmann line

https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/12/blue-origin-te...

[Beati Dogu]

The dummy it carried is named “Mannequin Skywalker”.

[AshVX220]

Beati Dogu said:

The dummy it carried is named “Mannequin Skywalker”.

I like that, I bet Elon's pissed that they thought of it and named it before he did!

[MartG]

Onboard video of the flight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJghIk7_VA&fe...

[p1stonhead]

MartG said:

Onboard video of the flight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJghIk7_VA&fe...

Presumably booster assisted landing hence why it was so soft?

Have to admit, I love this new era of space competition

[MartG]

p1stonhead said:

MartG said:

Onboard video of the flight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJghIk7_VA&fe...

Presumably booster assisted landing hence why it was so soft?

Have to admit, I love this new era of space competition

Parachutes plus braking rockets fired around 1s from landing

[eharding]

MartG said:

Onboard video of the flight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJghIk7_VA&fe...

Absolutely stunning. Amazing how smooth the ascent was. Hopefully at some stage we'll see a similar video overlaid with telemetry data and a commentary as to what all of the thumps, bumps and gurgles on the soundtrack signify.

[Beati Dogu]

I was like going up in a great glass elevator. Charlie Bucket eat your heart out.

You can see they've not fitted any interior trim and sound deadening yet. Here's how it will probably look:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origi...


I guess the gurgling was from the tank below. Jeff Bezos said the pinging was from one of the experiments they had on board.

[Caruso]

MartG said:

Onboard video of the flight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJghIk7_VA&fe...

Massive windows on the capsule, quite a view.

[CoolHands]

I would be stting a brick. Especially at around 5.55 when it’s going all wobbly and making airframe-ripping-apart noises

[Eric Mc]

The going up bit was a bit boring actually (although feeling the Gs build up might make it interesting).

Coming back down was REALLY scary.

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

The going up bit was a bit boring actually (although feeling the Gs build up might make it interesting).

Coming back down was REALLY scary.

Hopefully passengers will be shown a similar video to prepare them for the noises they will hear

[Beati Dogu]

At $100,000+ a seat, I think I'll pass. I'm sure plenty of people will be able to fly on it though.

[eharding]

MartG said:

Eric Mc said:

The going up bit was a bit boring actually (although feeling the Gs build up might make it interesting).

Coming back down was REALLY scary.

Hopefully passengers will be shown a similar video to prepare them for the noises they will hear

Not sure if we've linked this one before, but I'm not sure if they're going to have some form of in-cabin announcement system to let passengers know that the emergency escape system has been triggered....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqUIX3Z4r3k&fe...

...or they reckon folk might be able to work it out for themselves.

Actually, that looks rather fun as well. Perhaps they can offer it as an added-cost option.

[p1stonhead]

ash73 said:

I think if plenty of people are happy to pay $100K for a 5 minute ride we're at the point where we should seriously consider gathering all the money together and redistributing it to everyone and just starting again, and maybe do that every 50 years; but I guess that's for another thread.

Sorry but have you never realised that $100k is about 1p to a considerable amount of people?

I’ve seen people drop that at a casino an just walk away not even blinking.

If people can get over the danger factor, they should sell seats easy. Getting over the danger factor may be difficult though. The video wasn’t exactly calming to watch on the way back down!

[MartG]

ash73 said:

Probably one of the first things AI will change when it takes over.

Nah - it'll be the price of electricity

[Beati Dogu]

A look at the New Shepard rocket & capsule mock up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1H6QwxUTR8

Sounds like you'll get a day's training before each flight.