Posted on 04/30/2015 8:47:14 AM PDT by repentant_pundit
On April 7, Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson said that the space company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would be conducting its first unmanned test flights “later this year.”
As it turns out, “later this year” meant “three weeks.” The company has announced that it had conducted the first flight of its New Shepard space vehicle yesterday.
The propulsion module, powered by Blue Origin’s BE-3 rocket engine, took the New Shepard space capsule up to a speed of over Mach 3. The capsule then separated from the propulsion module and flew to an altitude of 307,000 feet before beginning its descent. That altitude is just shy of the 328,084 feet that’s generally considered to be the boundary of space.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
In other news...
“Amazon announced it intends to start 2-day delivery to the Moon for Prime customers in 2 years.”
Looks like a remarkably frugal launch facility.
There is quite a nice video at the Forbes link. I encourage all to view it.
After heavy vibration at launch, the ship will be capable of deep space penetration
But hey...they got it up.
Sometimes a rocket is more than just a rocket.
Very cool stuff at the link
Later
Was that meant to be tongue in cheek.................considering how remarkably phallic the spaceship appears?
"Hey, that looks like a big..."
"Willie!"
You think ?
Straight up, straight down, but over 300K feet, nice job! Thanks BenLurkin!
Nice graphic showing the various companies trying to do this kind of thing.
Musk has the cheapest per pound to orbit, of anyone.
http://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/55255c4fe4b0ffa93fd28f34/0x600.jpg
Their intent is a butt-first propellant landing, like SpaceX intends.
Interesting, their current engine is a cryo- hydrogen / oxygen burner, but like SpaceX, they’re headed off to a much more powerful methane-burner. Sensible.
https://www.blueorigin.com/technology#engine_stories_2
[snip] The BE-4 uses oxygen-rich staged combustion of liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas to produce 550,000 lb. of thrust. The BE-4 is currently under development and will be flight-ready in 2017. [/snip]
That is truly a space hotrod !
.
Yes.
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