Updates Blue Origin New Shepard News and Updates

[Urwumpe]

No. Second. First one lawn darted. No official news I've seen explained why. :shrug:

Hydraulic failure, as far as I read.

This is an apples and oranges comparison. SpaceX is recovering from Mach 10 and suborbital. Blue team went straight up (basically) and recovered. Both are pretty freakin' difficult accomplishments.

Still, when the final landing phase should begin, both scenarios are very similar. The only difference is that the Falcon 9 is wildly tumbling even with the potato mashers. The difference in horizontal velocity is really small, the difference in vertical velocity only by different aerodynamics.

The biggest difference is really just what the stage is supposed to do before landing - and the effects of these requirements on the vehicle shape. The New Shepard is short and looks pretty rigid to me, the Falcon 9 first stage is long and very elastic. When the Falcon 9 wants to turn, the stage bends significantly and the oscillations of the structure make the work of the sensors and control systems a lot harder.

All that does not have so much effect on the New Shepard.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Yeah, I'd wondered how much the 1.1 would pogo in flight. That's got to be amplified on recovery.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

The more money you have, the stupider you get to be.

And in any case, you never know who the stupid ones are until it really counts.

Yeah, if they have already paid, and are told to get back into their seat and they don't, what exactly are they going to do about it? Kick them off the ride? Will there be a flight attendant on board to wrestle them back into their seat?

The injury lawyers are going to have a field day when someone who did strap back in gets clobbered by some dope that decided to go ballistic (literally).

The only solution that I see would be to give each customer their own partition in the spacecraft with a window. They don't want to strap in? Fine, but they'll only hurt themselves. But this will only work if they get a view. If the capsule tilts and the view is of blackness, not sure they'll be happy with that.

*sigh* 1st world problems of the rich.

 

[RGClark]

The team at Blue seems to share this view. Until they can repeatedly stick the landing with that level of accuracy, this landing falls under the "luck" header.

As Pasteur said, luck favors the prepared mind.

Bob Clark

 

[MaverickSawyer]

As Pasteur said, luck favors the prepared mind.

Bob Clark

I much prefer the wisdom of Obi-Wan Kenobi... "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

 

[fred18]

let me just be a bit provocative:

I know that safe landing back is a technological success that helps in technology improvement and can drive some important steps forward in rocket design because as always, if you move the limit away then you have to improve on every field to get there, so my premise is that I love what both space x and Blue origin are doing

but: what about a simple parachute? why "reusability" is so linked to a powered descent and land back while, especially for blue origin which is flying vertical, a chute and a couple of air bags could have done the very same job with a huge cost and time saving?

Also for SpaceX what is the saving? surely not the recovery ship, since they are sailing a recovery barge anyway. Again this seems to me a bit more like a test bench for tech improvement than a real step forward toward reusability. Am I wrong?

 

[Thunder Chicken]

but: what about a simple parachute? why "reusability" is so linked to a powered descent and land back while, especially for blue origin which is flying vertical, a chute and a couple of air bags could have done the very same job with a huge cost and time saving?

Because things can get banged up pretty badly even landing with a parachute, especially larger structures like the main stage.

The engines are the pricey bits and you really don't want them dragged across the desert under a canopy. Also, flyback avoids the need for recovery assets to haul the thing back from wherever it landed.

The dream is to avoid a costly recovery and refurbishment - fly it back, stack it, gas it up, and send it off again, like an airliner.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Also, the structural reinforcements to handle the loads, and the addition of some sort of retrorocket for final touchdown, cut into your payload fraction by a fair amount.

 

[Andy44]

A parachute system weighs as much if not more than just carrying extra propellant for a powered landing.

And that's on top of all the other reasons mentioned above.

---------- Post added at 09:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 PM ----------

Yeah, if they have already paid, and are told to get back into their seat and they don't, what exactly are they going to do about it? Kick them off the ride? Will there be a flight attendant on board to wrestle them back into their seat?

The injury lawyers are going to have a field day when someone who did strap back in gets clobbered by some dope that decided to go ballistic (literally).

The only solution that I see would be to give each customer their own partition in the spacecraft with a window. They don't want to strap in? Fine, but they'll only hurt themselves. But this will only work if they get a view. If the capsule tilts and the view is of blackness, not sure they'll be happy with that.

*sigh* 1st world problems of the rich.

Or you could attach tethers to the backs of their clothes that yank them back into their seats whether they like it or not. Give them just enough slack to float up to the windows. Make it a choker chain LOL.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Or you could attach tethers to the backs of their clothes that yank them back into their seats whether they like it or not. Give them just enough slack to float up to the windows. Make it a choker chain LOL.

Nah, they'll hang themselves which will attract lawyers. Forget the restraints, lock them in chain-mail suits and turn on an electromagnet in their seats. Time to sit down! <CLICK!> WHUMP!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

In other news, is someone going to make an add-on for that? :hmm:

 

[Urwumpe]

In other news, is someone going to make an add-on for that? :hmm:

Can't make the meshes for that. :tiphat:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Another flight down:

 

[RGClark]

Another flight down:
Launch. Land. Repeat. - YouTube

Excellent! They beat SpaceX again!
Congrats to Blue Origin in making a key advance towards reusable spacecraft.

Bob Clark

 

[fsci123]

The private space race is heating up

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Interesting blurb in the news section of their web page:

We’re already more than three years into development of our first orbital vehicle. Though it will be the small vehicle in our orbital family, it’s still many times larger than New Shepard. I hope to share details about this first orbital vehicle this year.

Looks like Jeff's aiming big, too.

 

[Notebook]

BBC article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35391326

US entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has reflown his New Shepard rocket, launching once again a capsule briefly into space.

The hardware was exactly the same as that used last November, "demonstrating reuse", the Amazon.com founder wrote on his blog.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Video of second flight:

Pretty cool. I think we're going to see some tourist passengers pretty soon.

 

[Col_Klonk]

Excellent! They beat SpaceX again!
Congrats to Blue Origin in making a key advance towards reusable spacecraft.

Ouch!! that's going to hurt bad !! :lol:
I think I might like the BO's way of doing things.. slowish and pragmatic. On idea at a time.. getting the job done without too much fanfare !!

Imagine all the adrenalin junkies lined up at the launch pad. Here comes your new funfair.. occasional hole in the ground..let me on..mann!!
How many junkies are planned per capsule ?
:lol:

 

[Ripley]

"The first rocket to fly above the Karman line
and then land vertically upon the Earth...

...is now the first to have done it twice."

The provocation battle goes on!