Updates Blue Origin New Shepard News and Updates

[MaverickSawyer]

From what I gathered, there is some adjustments possible, but they aren't messing with them right now. And yeah, it was a little small on me. But I probably would have been fine in any situation short of an abort... Very well padded.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

 

[MaverickSawyer]

http://www.geekwire.com/2017/blue-origin-be4-engine-awry/

In a rare update, the Blue Origin space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos reported that it lost a set of powerpack test hardware for its BE-4 rocket engine over the weekend, but added that such a setback is “not unusual” during development.

“That’s why we always set up our development programs to be hardware-rich,” the company tweeted today. “Back into testing soon.”

Hey, at least they're testing the powerpack!

 

[jsky]

That is because you mistake "Does not make a profit." with "not profitable". Amazon invested largely in growth. Would they have stopped their growth strategy, they would be instantly profitable - but for how long? The competition does the same strategy. But for investors and banks, it is easily visible, that investing into Amazon is a good thing - they will get their investments back with interests. Even without a profit.

BTW: Last year (2016), Amazon.com was profitable actually. 2 billion USD net income.

agreed - amazon actually reinvests very aggressively in growth, meaning whenever it chooses to stop the aggressive and continued growth, those huge profits will be routed towards the investors.
in the meantime, the company is being valued based on revenue growth - meaning also that there's no need to show significant growth in profit.
welcome to the street, where numbers don't need to balance like a reentry calculation!

 

[Nicholas Kang]

Blue Origin's New Shepard To Resume Test Flight from West Texas

She is back for the 7th test flight!

WASHINGTON — An airspace closure notice published by the Federal Aviation Administration Dec. 9 suggests Blue Origin is preparing to resume test flights of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle after a hiatus of more than a year.

The Notice to Airman, or NOTAM, published by the FAA on its website Dec. 9 closes airspace above Blue Origin’s test site between Dec. 11 and 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern each day. The closure is to “provide a safe environment for rocket launch and recovery.”

The NOTAM does not give additional details about the planned activities, but does identify Blue Origin as the point of contact regarding the airspace closure.

“Blue Origin has filed a NOTAM for spaceflight operations this week. It will be taken down when our activity is complete,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to SpaceNews. The company declined to provide additional details about those spaceflight operations.

Previous test flights:

29 Apr 2015 flight -- 1st NS test, launch vehicle lost
23 Nov 2015 flight -- 2nd NS test, 1st test of new launch vehicle
22 Jan 2016 flight -- 3rd NS test, 2nd test of same launch vehicle
02 Apr 2016 flight -- 4th NS test, 3rd test of same launch vehicle
19 Jun 2016 flight -- 5th NS test, 4th test of same launch vehicle
05 Oct 2016 flight -- 6th NS test (inflight abort), 5th & final test of same launch vehicle

*This scheduled test flight (7th test flight) will see the launch of a new launch vehicle and a new crew capsule with "large" windows.

The company said it was building a new set of propulsion modules and crew capsules. In recent months, company officials said that test flights using the new vehicles would resume before the end of this year.

“We’re looking forward to flying the next tail number of New Shepard by the end of the year,” Ariane Cornell of Blue Origin said in a Sept. 26 panel discussion at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia.

Those future test flights, she said then, would also use a version of the crew capsule that includes the large windows the company has promoted as the largest ever to be flown on a spacecraft. The capsule on the earlier test flights had only the locations of the windows painted on its exterior. “It’s a really important next step,” she said.

Source: Spacenews.com, FAA NOTAM, Nasaspaceflight.com

 

[MaverickSawyer]

And Blue has returned to flight!

http://www.geekwire.com/2017/blue-o...new-shepard-suborbital-spaceship-test-flight/

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space venture, Blue Origin, launched the latest version of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship today for the company’s first test flight in 14 months, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The uncrewed, straight-up, straight-down trip was conducted at Blue Origin’s testing ground amid the ranchlands of West Texas. Efforts to obtain information from Blue Origin about the flight were not immediately successful.

 

[Urwumpe]

And Blue has returned to flight!

http://www.geekwire.com/2017/blue-o...new-shepard-suborbital-spaceship-test-flight/

And no news on Twitter yet. Jeff, you disappoint me. :lol:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

And no news on Twitter yet. Jeff, you disappoint me. :lol:

Hopefully this makes up for that?

 

[GLS]

The view of the capsule landing... :10sign:

 

[Donamy]

Funny how the glare on the window, protected the anonymity of the test dummy.:rofl:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Funny how the glare on the window, protected the anonymity of the test dummy.:rofl:

I'd love for it to have been Buster from Mythbusters. Space is about the only place he hasn't been to yet. :lol:

 

[Andy44]

I'd love for it to have been Buster from Mythbusters. Space is about the only place he hasn't been to yet. :lol:

Can't be Buster, because after the successful landing they'd have to show us an example of how things can go wrong.

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 PM ----------

ETA: that video was disappointing, to be honest. Not enough cameras in the right places (like inside the capsule, for example), and truly awful music instead of rocket noises.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

ETA: that video was disappointing, to be honest. Not enough cameras in the right places (like inside the capsule, for example), and truly awful music instead of rocket noises.

Ask and ye shall receive:

 

[Andy44]

That was pretty cool. If you watch the dust particles floating in the cabin, you can tell when the G starts coming up as the heavier particles start falling to the deck.

When it hit the denser air and that screaming wind noise came up it was like the dropship scene in Aliens, "One elevator ride straight to hell!" "Somebody wake up Hicks."

 

[GLS]

Mannequin Skywalker :rofl:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Ask and ye shall receive:

Mannequin Skywalker’s ride to space onboard Crew Capsule 2.0 - YouTube

Damn. I knew that the view would be spectacular, but seeing that... WOW. Can't wait for more footage.

 

[Notebook]

Amazing, makes it look quite...safe.

N.

 

[RGClark]

Amazing, makes it look quite...safe.

N.

Surprisingly gentle landing.

Bob Clark

 

[Urwumpe]

Surprisingly gentle landing.

Bob Clark

No so surprisingly, the propulsion module is highly optimized for landing, contrary to the Falcon 9 first stage for which landing is not the primary design attribute.

Thus, it is way more stable during descend and can control its landing much better than a Falcon 9.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

No so surprisingly, the propulsion module is highly optimized for landing, contrary to the Falcon 9 first stage for which landing is not the primary design attribute.

Thus, it is way more stable during descend and can control its landing much better than a Falcon 9.

I think he was referring to the capsule landing. That was not nearly as jarring as I would have expected. Lots of canopy to slow descent.