Posted on 12/20/2017 6:00:36 PM PST by mairdie
The battle of the billionaires between Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson looks set to finally blast its first passengers into space next year.
Speaking at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Colorado, Jeff Ashby, a former NASA astronaut who is director of safety and mission assurance for Jeff Bezos' space firm Blue Origin, said the firm is now 'a year out' from human flights.
It comes as Richard Branson claimed in October he will travel to space on his Virgin Galactic craft within six months.
Elon Musk is also expected to soon reveal the launch schedule for a manned version of his Dragon capsule that will ferry astronauts to the International Space station under a NASA contract next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
We might actually make some progress in space DURING Trump’s presidency. It wouldn’t just be that he’d get us started on again. We could actually see something happen. I can hardly believe it.
I hope Schumer, Pelosi, Durbin, Clyburn, Gov Brown, et al are volunteers for “the mission.” Yeah, I know...I am hoping against hope.
You have a rich fantasy life. I like it. I might borrow it.
Feel free!
We might actually make some progress in space DURING Trump’s presidency. It wouldn’t just be that he’d get us started on again. We could actually see something happen. I can hardly believe it.
Believe it.
The fact is, I'm still fired up from streaming the Falcon Heavy tets flight live instead of ad hoc. It cleared the gantry, great! Stuck the side booster landings simultaneously, screamin' wakin' the neighbors (I live in the country)...
And when will they be "Man Rated"?
The small suborbital rocket they’ve already flown a few times.
Musk has decided to go with SpaceX BFR, which will have more lift capability than Saturn V, even in reusable mode.
I guess since they are not launching from a NASA facility, they don't need a NASA Man Rating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Shepard#New_Shepard_3 New Shepard vehicles 2018+
New Shepard 4 (NS4)—the fourth propulsion module to be built—will be the first one to actually carry passengers. As of September 2017, Blue Origin projected that it would attempt to carry out the first human flight in 2018.[5]
Additional vehicles are under construction. An initial build order of six vehicles was planned, each one taking 9 to 12 months to construct. After the initial build, and after completing an extensive test flight program, Blue Origin intends to "let the demand for space tourism and research determine how many additional vehicles may be needed."[7]
The New Shepard is launched vertically from West Texas and then performs a powered flight for about 110 s and to an altitude of 40 km (130,000 ft). The craft's momentum carries it upward in unpowered flight as the vehicle slows, culminating at an altitude of about 100 km (330,000 ft). After reaching apogee the vehicle would perform a descent and restart its main engines a few tens of seconds before vertical landing, close to its launch site.[40] The total mission duration is planned to be 10 minutes.
America *FIRST!* please...whatever endeavor it is up in the heavens...
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