Posted on 11/22/2023 6:48:03 PM PST by algore
Elon Musk once branded Jeff Bezos a 'dilettante' of space exploration, but the Blue Origin founder is poised to beat SpaceX to Mars.
NASA announced Wednesday that it will send two scientific spacecraft to the Red Planet aboard the first Blue Origin New Glenn rocket in August 2024 - a contract that costs $20 million.
Musk's SpaceX company was initially set to carry the NASA payload on a Falcon Heavy rocket in October of this year, alongside NASA's Psyche mission, which was bound for an asteroid.
However, the space agency pulled the additional crafts from the launch because the Falcon Heavy would not put them on the proper trajectory to insert them into Mars' orbit.
The new timeline announcement comes shortly after Musk's Starship rocket - the ship he wants to use to ferry crews to the moon and eventually Mars - blew up in a second launch attempt.
An identical pair of spacecraft making up NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer (ESCAPADE) mission will hitch a ride on the unproven Blue Origin New Glenn rocket, each carrying three experiments to investigate the effects of solar winds on the planet's magnetosphere.
This launch is part of a broader NASA effort to use private contractors to get to Mars more cheaply.
The US space agency has made a habit of swinging by our planetary neighbor to drop off orbiters, landers, and rovers, most recently in 2020 with the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter.
NASA's decision is the latest chapter in the billionaire space race between Musk and Bezos, which earlier this year saw each company win separate multibillion-dollar contracts with NASA to go to the moon.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Now ... Blue Origin has so far only managed to launch a manned giant phallus into a very suborbital trajectory.
The government is insane. This is a CROOKED politically motivated procurement.
Compare BlueOrigin with NOTHING accomplished yet versus SpaceX:
SpaceX 288 TOTAL launches since inception (5x Falcon 1, 275x Falcon 9, 8x Falcon Heavy)
SpaceX Landing Attempts Total
259 (Total) – 206 (droneship), 53 (land)
Successful Landings Total
248 (Total) – 196 (droneship), 52 (land)
Most Landing Successes in a Row - 174 (current streak which began after Starlink v1-19)
Overall Landing Success Rate:
95.75% (Overall)
33.3% (2015)
62.5% (2016)
100% (2017)
85.7% (2018)
93.75% (2019)
92% (2020)
96.77% (2021)
100% (2022)
100% (2023)
2023
81 Falcon 9
4 Falcon Heavy
2 Starships
87 landings (100% success)
Launch rate: 3.81 days
Manned flights: Likely four but maybe even five or six
2022
60 Falcon 9 (100% success)
1 Falcon Heavy (100% success)
32 of these were for Starlink satellites
60 Landings (100% success)
Launched 1,722 Starlink satellites into orbit, over a third of all Starlink satellites launched since the first in 2019
First national security launch for the National Reconnaissance Office
Launched three crewed missions to ISS
“ This is just the Biden regime rewarding one of its faithful donors.”
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Yep, just as the Biden regime’s decision to build the new FBI headquarters in Maryland was a political decision. Neither of these decisions are in America’s best interest… quite the contrary.
Doesn't that give you a nice warm feeling inside?
Bezos has not even got his “new glenn” rocket to the launch pad to even test anything. And nasa wants to launch on it. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Blue Origin, by itself, will probably never get to buy a Mars Candy Bar. Bezos is trying to purchase an entirely different rocket company, United Launch Alliance (ULA). ULA has a proven launch record. I can just see Bezos slapping a Blue Origin label on the ULA rockets and calling Blue Origin a success.
Bezos just fired the top Blue Origin exec. The just-fired exec spent 4 years launching nothing while SpaceX has more launches than most countries combined. SpaceX has not just proven reusability, they have mastered it.
To demonstrate the success and cost efficiency of SpaceX, the European Space Alliance (ESA) has contracted 4 satellite launches with SpaceX. Not Blue Origin, SpaceX. ESA is so mired in bureaucracy, they cannot launch their own rockets and satellites.
The only thing holding back SpaceX from being much further along with Starship is the Hussein/Biden Regime. Besides the FAA and the FCC, The Regime even has the Federal Fish & Wildlife Administration slowing down SpaceX. Disgusting.
In one of the most hilarious nuisance lawsuits brought by The Regime, they accused SpaceX of not hiring foreigners. Since SpaceX has very serious technology, only citizens are allowed to get near. When the suit was presented in court, the judge basically stated What The ??? and dismissed the suit.
WAPO/Bezos = CIA/Swamp outlet.
Blue Origin?
Will never happen, IMHO...
Bezos has been doing skyhops, nothing orbital.
There's no later Falcon Heavy launch that might be available?
Just like Obama freezing out Houston and rewarding Schumer/Clinton and New York with a retired space shuttle.
-PJ
Hahahaha...is there ANY conservative who would back Bezos in this? Musk has some qualities we really like, since basket of odd fruit to pick from him is pretty broad!
Now ... Blue Origin has so far only managed to launch a manned giant phallus into a very suborbital trajectory.
***
Launchus Interruptus?
-PJ
Except that...
"The US government isn't paying for free Amazon Prime membership for people who are on SSI and a host of other low income programs."
It is a private Amazon initiative and it isn't free,it's discounted.
To be fair, the launchus isn’t usually interruptus ... it’s just not much of a launch. It’s enough for paying tourist customers to say, truthfully, that they’ve “been in space”.
Like just about everything else with Commizon.
Their shipping for example. US taxpayer subsidized.
That's typical "logistics manager" thinking, and I more than once saw it cost General Motors $$$hundreds of million$$$. Company I worked for had a fifteen year leg up on the technology, and in one case I was project manager when they finally tore out the inferior equipment and replaced it all with ours. But they taught us a lesson, by God! Oh, yes they did! By producing a recall-prone engine for two years.
I’ve been an AMZ customer since Bezos was just selling books. Buy a tremendous amount of stuff there, therefore have PRIME free. It’s a terrific service. Just ordered a case of cat food and some Trader Joe Sweet Chili Sauce . Trader is out of it, but I thought AMZ might have some and there it was.
Perhaps you might get PRIME free if you buy enough.
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