Blue Origin and New SHEPARD RLV

Orionblamblam said:
Flyaway said:
Details of the next manned New Shepherd launch currently planned for the 23rd March:
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A new patch for every single commercial flight? Seems kinda... "lookit meeeeeeeee!"
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Be fair. There's a patch for every SpaceX manned mission as well. Including the one (so far) commercial flight.
 
Orionblamblam said:
Flyaway said:
Details of the next manned New Shepherd launch currently planned for the 23rd March:
Click to expand...

A new patch for every single commercial flight? Seems kinda... "lookit meeeeeeeee!"
Click to expand...
For the amount of money that they are paying it's a nice memento that they can keep to display at the office or at home. Sort of like the awarding of astronaut wings after every flight. Pointless but a nice souvenir.
 
As Blue Origin nears the critical point of delivering flight-ready BE-4 rocket engines to United Launch Alliance, the engineer in charge of the company's rocket engine program has decided to leave.

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith recently informed employees of the departure of John Vilja, the senior vice president of Blue Engines. In Smith's email to employees, obtained by Ars, Vilja is said to be leaving Blue to pursue his "many" interests and hobbies outside of work.
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According to company sources, the first two BE-4 flight engines are in final production at Blue Origin's factory in Kent, Washington. The first of these engines is scheduled to be shipped to a test site in May for "acceptance testing" to ensure its flight readiness. A second should follow in reasonably short order. On this schedule, Blue Origin could conceivably deliver both flight engines to United Launch Alliance in June or July. Sources at Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance say development versions of the BE-4—which are nearly identical to the flight versions—have been performing well in tests.
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arstechnica.com

The manager of Blue Origin’s rocket engine program has left the company

“He also built a world-class Engines team.”…
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
The Painful Truth why OB is NOT SpaceX
main problem they have is CEO Bob Smith and Jeff Bezos treat the company like his Hobby on Weekends...
Not like Elon Musk work 120 hours a week to run TESLA and SpaceX

While more and more specialist leaving BO for SpaceX

Bob Smith has Approval rating of 32%
Elon Musk has Approval rating of 90% !

Source:
check glassdoor + Blue Origin
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icp_cSggb9g
 
And obviously, as nothing much has progressed on the space launcher side (while contracting SpaceX would have been seen as rebuff to Mr Bezos)...
Amazon on Tuesday announced what it says is the biggest rocket deal in the commercial space industry's history, signing on with three companies for up to 83 launches of its Project Kuiper internet satellites.

The technology giant signed contracts for 38 launches with United Launch Alliance (ULA) – a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin; 18 launches with European company Arianespace; and 12 launches with Blue Origin, with an option for as many as 15 additional launches with the private venture that's owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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www.cnbc.com

Amazon signs massive rocket deal with 3 firms, including Bezos' Blue Origin, to launch internet satellites

Project Kuiper is Amazon's plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com
 
After hype Mega deal of 83 launches for Kupier constellation
comes the little issues...
FAA permit say 50% of all Kupier satellite (would be 1500 units) must be in Orbit in 2026 !
the entire constellation ready in 2029
Those booked rocket have not fly yet, the BE-4 engine not ready...
and 4 years to get 1500 satellite into orbit...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNk9VLyWqk
 
here we go again

Sorry, Mom, Blue Origin may not use "Jacklyn." In December 2020, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos visited Pensacola, Florida, to rename a large rocket recovery ship "Jacklyn" after his mother. "New Glenn’s first stage will come home to the Jacklyn after every flight," Bezos wrote on his Instagram account. "It couldn't be more appropriately named—Mom has always given us the best place and best heart to come home to." A year and a half later, Blue Origin appears to be reconsidering that possibility, the Pensacola News Journal reports.

Coming home may be too expensive ... The 600-foot former cargo ship has been docked at the Port of Pensacola since 2018, undergoing a retrofit so it can serve as a landing platform for the first stage of New Glenn. A Blue Origin spokesperson told the publication that no final decision has been made yet. The company is looking at "different options" for recovery vessels that give the best chance for mission success while also being safe and cost-effective, the spokesperson said. It seems unlikely that Blue Origin will revert to ground-based landings; it seems like Blue Origin is instead seeking a more economical option than the massive "Jacklyn" for recovery operations. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
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Source
arstechnica.com

Rocket Report: Falcon 9 says Aloha to Hawaii, Blue Origin to abandon ship?

“New Glenn’s first stage will come home to the Jacklyn after every flight.”…
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
Well, we have had it beaten into our heads that half of launch costs are from “standing armies.”

Maybe Bezos figures it’s foolish to replace that with standing navies?

There are CEOs who make less than deep water divers who weld on oil derricks and such…and rocket handling can’t be too far behind. Bezos is tight.

Funny
nypost.com

Jeff Bezos mid-life crisis rumors resurface after Lauren Sanchez proposal

Once a quintessential tech nerd, Bezos has been wearing tight clothes, funky sunglasses and acting like “horny teenagers” with Sanchez, who greatly resembles the busty figurehead on Koru, the world…
nypost.com nypost.com

He is going for a third expansion here in Alabama at least.
 
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The next manned flight NS-21 includes the first repeat passenger.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1523666236198252544
View: https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1523666236198252544


#NewShepard’s 21st mission will include the first Mexican-born woman to fly to space @KatVoltage, Evan Dick, Hamish Harding, @hespanha_victor, Jaison Robinson, and @VictorVescovo. The flight date will be announced soon. Read more : bit.ly/3ywpmgG #NS21
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www.blueorigin.com

NS-21 to Fly Six Customer Astronauts, Including First Mexican-Born Woman to Visit Space

www.blueorigin.com www.blueorigin.com
 
i notice some thing:

New Shepard flew in 2015 and made first sub orbital landing
Over 7 years the New Shepard flew 21 times

SpaceX over 7 years made 122 landing with of Falcon 9...
 
i look true my Space Flight books and found essay by Harry o Ruppe on Reuse of Rockets from 1980s
dam Elon Musk got it right, and went for Ballistic reuse first stage and Faring and dump the Second stage.

now Blue Origin goes to reuse the Second stage of New Glenn
but this bring hell of problems
while first stage ballistic reuse brings increase of +16% empty mass see Falcon 9.
need reuse of Second stage a increase of +37% on second stage empty mass !
Those +37% has to come from somewhere, mostly by reducing the Payload mass or increase first state to compensate it
next to that reuse of faring
That why SpaceX abandon plans to reuse Falcon 9 second Stage and build Starship.

Can it be that BO project Jarvis delay new Glenn, because the Rocket & engines need modification for reuse ?

My guess is that BO will cut Payload down from 45000kg under 40000kg
 
Michel Van said:
i look true my Space Flight books and found essay by Harry o Ruppe on Reuse of Rockets from 1980s
dam Elon Musk got it right, and went for Ballistic reuse first stage and Faring and dump the Second stage.

now Blue Origin goes to reuse the Second stage of New Glenn
but this bring hell of problems
while first stage ballistic reuse brings increase of +16% empty mass see Falcon 9.
need reuse of Second stage a increase of +37% on second stage empty mass !
Those +37% has to come from somewhere, mostly by reducing the Payload mass or increase first state to compensate it
next to that reuse of faring
That why SpaceX abandon plans to reuse Falcon 9 second Stage and build Starship.

Can it be that BO project Jarvis delay new Glenn, because the Rocket & engines need modification for reuse ?

My guess is that BO will cut Payload down from 45000kg under 40000kg
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I don't know what those mass percentage numbers might signify in your mind, but to me (having spent roughly two professional decades in that very particular corner of the general aerospace engineering asylum) they are utterly meaningless without being related to the number of possible reuses and associated costs. Note also that despite the Falcon figures, Starship is intended to be fully reusable, regardless whether Harry O (I met the man repeatedly during my time in Munich in a professional capacity - enjoyably he had a very dry wit) would have approved of it or not.
 
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martinbayer said:
Harry O (I met the man repeatedly during my time in Munich in a professional capacity - enjoyably he had a very dry wit)
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on Harry o. Ruppe, i have his master piece "Die Grenzenlose Dimension: Raumfahrt" volume 1&2
and reading between the line you notice his dry wit ;)
His critic on ORTAG is brutal honest, also study on dispose german nuclear waste in space...

Back to BO
According the Angry Astronaut,
there rumor that BE-4 engines for ULA first Vulcan, starting leaking, prior static fire test ignition !
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr8vjGMSumY


in meantime the delays produce malice joy in internet
https://twitter.com/x/status/1561385334121930752
View: https://twitter.com/Matt_Lowne/status/1561385334121930752
 
Michel Van said:
ULA should dump BO and take the SpaceX Raptor engine for Vulcan (with modification to first stage.)
or ask others manufactures to build new engine for them fast...
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Do you seriously think that a) SpaceX would even consider selling Raptors to ULA or b) that someone else could design a brand new methalox engine suitable for Vulcan in anything close to "fast" time?

Reality check -- the BE-4 is ULA's only option now. They will make it work, one way or another.
 
publiusr said:
There was a blurb about New Armstrong being hinted at over at NSF…Pooh-Poohed by the usual suspects.
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Pooh-poohed by everybody I'd think. New Glenn is almost vaporware at this point. New Armstrong probably doesn't even have a powerpoint yet.
 
Michel Van said:
The Unmanned test flight NS-23 of New Shepard suffers anomaly
The LES of capsule was activated and capsule landed safe, booster lost

https://twitter.com/x/status/1569332182199443458
View: https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1569332182199443458
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Just after max q and probably as a result of the throttle up.

My two cents, you see a little puff of propellant appear at 1 min 1 sec which I suspect was the oxidizer pump disintegrating. Right after that the chamber pressure drops off and goes fuel rich, then the engine blows up.

Stage blows up probably as a result of the abort and LES firing. Nice to know the LES works properly, from an ordered abort anyway.

We'll be seeing that on the news for a day or so.
 
Please note this was the unmanned variant of the booster. Seemingly the manned variant is different in some ways. See below.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1569347325679509509
View: https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1569347325679509509


What we do know is that Blue Origin has had an exceptional safety record heretofore with New Shepard, with no significant problem on its previous 20 flights. Also, this booster was not human-rated, unlike Booster 4, which is used for crew flights.
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