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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches rocket in smooth test flight

signal

signal

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Oct 28, 2017
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CBS
Blue Origin, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, launched a New Shepard suborbital capsule from West Texas on Sunday, boosting a suite of microgravity experiments and an instrumented dummy astronaut known as Mannequin Skywalker to the edge of space in the company's eighth test flight.
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Perched atop a reusable booster powered by a single hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine, the New Shepard spacecraft blasted off from the company's Van Horn, Texas, test facility at 1:06 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) and smoothly climbed away, generating 110,000 pounds of thrust and trailing a brilliant jet of flame.

Designed to carry up to six "space tourists" to altitudes above 62 miles, the widely recognized threshold of space, the unmanned New Shepard capsule separated from its booster, as planned, at an altitude of about 47 miles, before soaring on its own to a height of 351,000 feet, or 66.5 miles.
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It was Blue Origin's eighth New Shepard flight overall and it's seventh successful booster flight in a row. It was the company's first test flight since Dec. 12.

Blue Origin is developing the reusable New Shepard rocket and spacecraft to carry up to six space tourists, researchers and/or experiments on brief suborbital flights, with piloted test flights presumably starting later this year. No target dates have been announced.

The spacecraft features a powerful, already-tested abort system that can quickly push the capsule away from a malfunctioning booster and six large windows, each measuring nearly four feet tall and two-and-a-half feet wide that Blue Origin says will provide customers with spectacular panoramic views.
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Blue Origin has built a sprawling rocket factory near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to manufacture New Glenn boosters and is developing a launch pad at the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The New Glenn will compete with United Launch Alliance's upcoming Vulcan rocket and with SpaceX boosters in the U.S. launch market.

In the suborbital space tourism arena, Blue Origin will be competing with Virgin Galactic, a company owned by Virgin-founder Richard Bransom that is developing a rocket-powered spaceplane to carry tourists on suborbital flights to the edge of space.
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space warz. also no "thats a penis" posting pls.
 

Deffers

Banned
Mar 4, 2018
2,404
Seriously though, the capsule looking like a glans really redefines just how phallic I thought rockets could be.
 
Zeshakag

Zeshakag

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Oct 28, 2017
301
This is big. Grats to Blue Origin. Fellow SpaceX fanboys should be knowledgeable enough to know how much of a business yardstick this is to reach. It may be suborbital, but it’s successful.

Nice to see more private space.

Also that hover touchdown is smooooth. Much less ass clenchy than hover slamming.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,091
Is this how I'll get my prime deliveries in the future?

Seriously though, this is impressive. If NASA can't do it (due to lack of funds), then I'm glad others are jumping in.
 
Sedated

Sedated

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Apr 13, 2018
2,355
I didn't even think they looked like a penis until I read the last line of op. Now I can't stop laughing.
 
Crispy75

Crispy75

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,488
Zeshakag said:
This is big. Grats to Blue Origin. Fellow SpaceX fanboys should be knowledgeable enough to know how much of a business yardstick this is to reach. It may be suborbital, but it’s successful.

Nice to see more private space.

Also that hover touchdown is smooooth. Much less ass clenchy than hover slamming.
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This is the eighth flight of this vehicle, so not that big really.

The landing is smooth because the flight is only suborbital. Max speed is Mach 3 or so, with zero horizontal component. There's plenty of reserve fuel to do a slow landing.

F9 booster gets up to Mach 7, most of that going sideways. The hover slam is the only possible landing from such a trajectory.

New Glenn will be the really big deal, and a true F9/FH competitor. First flight in 2020 they reckon.
 
qaopjlll

qaopjlll

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,193
How come he can launch a rocket but he can't get my packages delivered to my apartment correctly
 
Trickster

Trickster

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,534
SK4TE said:
What do you mean? They just landed a space rocket. Is this already not amazing?
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Compared to what SpaceX currently does it's not that impressive to launch a small rocket straight up a hundred kilometers and then back down.

That said, a lot of people are sleeping big time on Blue Origin though. They're taking a different and less high profile approach than SpaceX. And people who don't really look into BO just hear about these tourist rockets and put them on the same level as Virgin Galactic. But in a few years when they start flying the New Glenn, then things will get really interesting
 
manzoman96

manzoman96

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Oct 25, 2017
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Blue origin I thought someone discovered that Bezos is from Pandora or something lol.
 
Red Cadet 015

Red Cadet 015

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Oct 27, 2017
2,947
Lol ULA is quickly going to find its ass left behind. They've gotten way too fat on those military contracts.
 
ZOONAMI

ZOONAMI

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Oct 27, 2017
19,151
Unknown Soldier said:
The irony is that space is privatizing because major governments no longer have the interest or funding. Except for China. Who seem to be hopelessly behind at this point.
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One failed launch doesn't mean China is helplessly behind. That blue origin rocket is a toy compared to the long 5 which did have a successful launch in 2016. The failed 2017 launch was a set back but I believe they are set to launch this year again. The Chinese will be to the Moon and to Mars before any of these private outfits (excluding SpaceX).
 
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Deleted member 14002

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Oct 27, 2017
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Trickster said:
Compared to what SpaceX currently does it's not that impressive to launch a small rocket straight up a hundred kilometers and then back down.

That said, a lot of people are sleeping big time on Blue Origin though. They're taking a different and less high profile approach than SpaceX. And people who don't really look into BO just hear about these tourist rockets and put them on the same level as Virgin Galactic. But in a few years when they start flying the New Glenn, then things will get really interesting
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We all know Elons trying to colonize mars or some shit, but what's the endgame for Jeff?
 
TheMan

TheMan

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,264
I had no idea blue origin was a thing. Interesting that these guys are competing in this space. I just one of them gets us to mars soon
 
platocplx

platocplx

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Oct 30, 2017
22,981
HeyImNewHere said:
Lol ok XD.
He going to put an Amazon warehouse on the moon?
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lmao honestly it looks like he just wants a piece of everything. Look at Amazon now they have their tentacles..er roots in everything. So i would suspect this would be the same. If we do move to space they would be a part of it. Also possibly being able to deliver items faster using the same tech military rockets use to deliver payloads across the world. Thats all i could really think of other than he has too much fucking money and is bored. lol
 
Aquavelvaman

Aquavelvaman

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Oct 25, 2017
5,604
Bezos heard slavery wasn't illegal in space and so he made a rocket that looks like the boner that the idea of forced labor gives him
 
Crispy75

Crispy75

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Oct 25, 2017
1,488
Bezos reckons there's money to be made in space, if the transport is cheap enough.

There probably is. Specialised 0g manufacturing and asteroid mining to start with.
 
Mengy

Mengy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,714
What an odd design for a rocket shape. I’ll bet it’s great at penetrating the atmosphere! They should have called it the Phalic-9 rocket.



Honestly though, that was a great test flight with a perfect performance. Blue Origin is behind Space X in the tech race, but they are progressing well anyway. More options for space travel is a very good thing.
 
DrewFu

DrewFu

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Apr 19, 2018
10,360
I don't think I'll ever get over seeing these rockets land. It's something I didn't think I'd see in my lifetime. lol
 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
27,962
X1 Two said:
What are you talking about? It's a hydrogen drive, the only emissions it has is water.
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Oh sorry guess I took the question to be about these in general including Virgin's and not only this rocket but you're right.

Then again I have no idea about emissions from Virgin or SpaceX test flights (even though those are not tourist flights like the post was about) so my post was stupid :think:
 
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