Blue Origin

Author
Discussion

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

121,779 posts

264 months

Wednesday 30th December 2020
quotequote all
Less than two meters distance perhaps?

MartG

20,622 posts

203 months

Wednesday 13th January 2021
quotequote all
Blue Origin’s next New Shepard flight is targeting liftoff tomorrow, January 14, at 9:45 AM CST / 15:45 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas. Mission NS-14 is the 14th flight for the New Shepard program.

For this mission, the crew capsule will be outfitted with upgrades for the astronaut experience as the program nears human space flight. The upgrades include improvements to environmental features such as acoustics and temperature regulation inside the capsule, crew display panels, and speakers with a microphone and push-to-talk button at each seat. The mission will also test a number of astronaut communication and safety alert systems. The capsule will be outfitted with six seats, including one occupied by Mannequin Skywalker.

Also inside the capsule, Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future will fly more than 50,000 postcards to space and back from students around the globe. A selection of postcards will fly in Mannequin Skywalker’s pockets. This is the third batch of Club for the Future postcards flown to space. To participate in the postcard program, go here.

All mission crew supporting this launch are exercising strict social distancing and safety measures to mitigate COVID-19 risks to personnel, customers, and surrounding communities.

Launch coverage begins at T-30 minutes on BlueOrigin.com. Follow @BlueOrigin on Twitter for launch updates.

—Gradatim Ferociter

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Thursday 14th January 2021
quotequote all
The livestream of the latest test launch of New Shepard is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9oTZu2HP8U

GTO-3R

7,458 posts

212 months

Thursday 14th January 2021
quotequote all
Is that seriously how long you get "in space" if you pay to go up in that?

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

121,779 posts

264 months

Thursday 14th January 2021
quotequote all
Not much different to what Alan Shepard managed in 1961.

Einion Yrth

19,575 posts

243 months

Friday 15th January 2021
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
Not much different to what Alan Shepard managed in 1961.
If the tourists are expected to pull the thick end of 12G on the way down, I doubt there'll be many tickets sold.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

121,779 posts

264 months

Friday 15th January 2021
quotequote all
Einion Yrth said:
If the tourists are expected to pull the thick end of 12G on the way down, I doubt there'll be many tickets sold.
And also on the way up. The Redstone gave the occupant a bit of a rough ride.

I was thinking more of the capability of the rocket regarding where it could take its occupants rather than how comfortable the experience might be.

I would like to see Blue Origin actually start this service and then get a move on with its genuine space projects. They still haven't flown any sort of orbital mission.

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Friday 15th January 2021
quotequote all
I hadn't realised they're currently just going straight up and down, hardly any horizontal speed at all, the landing point was only a couple of miles from the launch.

I didn't watch the whole thing, do we know what the purpose of the flight was? Just commissioning a new rocket or were they testing some new components?

cwis

1,147 posts

178 months

Friday 15th January 2021
quotequote all
RizzoTheRat said:
I hadn't realised they're currently just going straight up and down, hardly any horizontal speed at all, the landing point was only a couple of miles from the launch.

I didn't watch the whole thing, do we know what the purpose of the flight was? Just commissioning a new rocket or were they testing some new components?
I think this particular vehicle has done 7 or 8 of these now. We're all waiting for some passengers right? I think they sell some space currently for micro gravity experiments to various people, including NASA.


Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Friday 15th January 2021
quotequote all
It was a new rocket, but it was really a test of the final capsule design for customer use. So all 6 seats, fixtures & fittings etc.

They don't want sideways movement with this as it's not going to orbit anyway. Just a straight up & down joyride.


The booster had to fight it to land safely. The engine was gimballing like mad.

Apparently SpaceX's big Superheavy booster will be able to hover like that too. Unlike the Falcon 9 booster, which is really just a controlled fall.

That's why they think they can land it precisely back on the launch pad.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

121,779 posts

264 months

Friday 15th January 2021
quotequote all
It looked a bit dicey at the end, I have to say. I expect it was battling some sort of crosswind.

MartG

20,622 posts

203 months

Friday 15th January 2021
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
It looked a bit dicey at the end, I have to say. I expect it was battling some sort of crosswind.
Watching it I thought 'they'd be buggered if they were trying to land on a barge at sea' frown

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2021
quotequote all
Jeff Bezos is stepping down from CEO of Amazon at the end of the year. Now he’ll have more time to play rockets and politics.

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Saturday 13th February 2021
quotequote all
Secretive Blue Origin opened their factory door at Cape Canaveral yesterday for a sneak peak of their New Glenn rocket



"Enhance"....


Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
The hype begins: Blue Origin shows off the factory where they're making New Glenn:

https://youtu.be/iXOXKfarFhg


The Tank Cleaning and Processing Facility:

https://youtu.be/KQJj1_ad3FY


And also their launchpad - Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36

https://youtu.be/PuckWaCJPWg


Yeah it's big and undeniably impressive. Interesting that they've built crew access capability for potential manned flights with New Glenn

Clive Milk

429 posts

39 months

Thursday 25th February 2021
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
The hype begins: Blue Origin shows off the factory where they're making New Glenn:

https://youtu.be/iXOXKfarFhg


The Tank Cleaning and Processing Facility:

https://youtu.be/KQJj1_ad3FY


And also their launchpad - Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36

https://youtu.be/PuckWaCJPWg


Yeah it's big and undeniably impressive. Interesting that they've built crew access capability for potential manned flights with New Glenn
I'd rather see them do a sub orbital with someone onboard New Shephard....... they seem to have it nailed, so why nothing?

They have a different approach to SpaceX, but I'm not sure why it is so slow? Any ideas?



Talksteer

4,843 posts

232 months

Friday 26th February 2021
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
The hype begins: Blue Origin shows off the factory where they're making New Glenn:

https://youtu.be/iXOXKfarFhg


The Tank Cleaning and Processing Facility:

https://youtu.be/KQJj1_ad3FY


And also their launchpad - Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36

https://youtu.be/PuckWaCJPWg


Yeah it's big and undeniably impressive. Interesting that they've built crew access capability for potential manned flights with New Glenn
I had a look at that this morning.

It interesting to compare and contrast with SpaceX on Starship.

The modus oprendi does look more like NASA and traditional supply chain in that they have built a facility, it all built to aerospace industry standards with lots of very expensive and bespoke tooling all done up front before the first rocket is made. (In fairness the SpaceX Falcon lines look not dissimilar)

I did wonder if their mock-up cost them more than SpaceX would pay to build one of their actual Starships!

The real acid test will be how they run the facilities once up and running, what SpaceX are currently demonstrating is that the cash burn rate of a rocket production facility is about the same whether you produce 1 rocket every month or every two years.

Still New Glenn is very impressive

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Sunday 28th February 2021
quotequote all
They don’t expect to be flying it until the 4th quarter of 2022.

2fast748

1,091 posts

194 months

Tuesday 2nd March 2021
quotequote all
Interesting article here about Blue Origins plans and lack of progress:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/03/so-what-re...

Beati Dogu

8,862 posts

138 months

Tuesday 2nd March 2021
quotequote all
That article sounds about right to me. ULA’s Vulcan rocket, which uses two BE-4s is probably the rocket Blue Origin should have built before New Glenn. They need to get that BE-4 engine working properly more than anything right now. If an engine failure screws up Vulcan’s demo flight, it’s not going to look good.

ULA have flown much of Vulcan’s hardware already on other rockets. From the boosters to the flight computers to even the fairings. The biggest unknown on the whole system is those main engines.

Edited by Beati Dogu on Tuesday 2nd March 19:23