Given Bezo's proclivities, it's not surprising the shape of the rocket (even if it is for functionality.)
Posted on 11/24/2015 1:00:25 PM PST by Hojczyk
Blue Origin, the private space firm owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, has just dropped a huge gauntlet in the race to develop a reusable rocket. It just launched its New Shepard space vehicle (video, below), consisting of a BE-3 rocket and crew capsule, to the edge of space at a suborbital altitude of 100.5 kilometers (62 miles). The capsule then separated and touched down beneath a parachute, but more importantly, the BE-3 rocket also started its own descent. After the rockets fired at nearly 5,000 feet, it made a a controlled vertical landing at a gentle 4.4 mph.
So far, SpaceX has managed to get its own reusable booster close to its barge platform, but hasn't nailed the landing yet. Elon Musk's company does have a more daunting task, however -- its much larger Falcon 9 reusable first stage is propelling the rocket to an orbital, not suborbital altitude.
While SpaceX's rocket separates at a similar height of around 50 miles, its speed at that point is much faster than that of New Shepard -- around Mach 10 compared to Mach 3.7. As a result, it continues to an apogee height of nearly 90 miles, so it has a lot further to fall. During its last attempt, the rocket unfortunately exploded early in the flight, setting the program back significantly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pillaOxGCo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pillaOxGCo
Published on Nov 24, 2015
Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle successfully flew to space, reaching its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet (100.5 kilometers) before executing a historic landing back at the launch site in West Texas.
I think the first stage of an orbital launch vehicle is a different kettle of fish than the only stage of a sub-orbital thrill ride.
Both are great rockets, although the Spacex excuse making by the reporter is distasteful. The spacex rockets haven’t failed because they went higher, they failed in the last few feet in landing. Some of that may be to an unsteady barge, but give Blue Origin due credit.
Yikes... That was impressive.
Good luck to both teams.
I am a huge fan of space exploration.
I am no rocket scientist...but it sure looked cool.
Given Bezo's proclivities, it's not surprising the shape of the rocket (even if it is for functionality.)
This is comparing apples to oranges.
SpaceX has landed its test rocket several times successfully. Perhaps that would make a better comparison.
Bezos launched a prototype optimized to allow return of a first stage for demonstration purposes and achieve press release-—check. SpX launched a payload to orbit going like a bat-out-of-hell and flew stage back to a recovery test area down-range. Peak apogee and velocity 3x Blue Origin test, thus 1st stage elapsed flight duration at least triple. Getting return systems to function for this different flight envelope all the way back to the ground, just a part of space engineering.
They are working to fly 3/4 of this back for re-use:
NASA should learn the K.I.S.S. rule
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
