bezos in space

[finnski1]

Bezos in space.
Watching the live feed of Bezos. Blue Origin blasts off in 24 minutes.

 

[camfused]

Unlike Branson, Bezos is actually going into “space”

 

[frayne]

Branson and Bezos calling themselves astronauts is more than a bit absurd at least in my way of thinking. Great promotion though, just hope my "prime" subscription doesn't increase.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

One of the advantages of retirement...you can watch this live and not worry about "missing" wo*k.

Watching the interview with Wally Funk was awesome...what a fantastic attitude. Our society needs a whole lotta Wallys!

 

[Aerides]

Unlike Branson, Bezos is actually going into “space”

I mean yeah but still, a difference of about 15 km to go over the karman line for a minute. Still not in outer orbit, or even remotely as high as the ISS.

Still, yeah more space-y with a rocket vs. a flashy plane.

 

[Car-Guy]

Another successful Amazon shipment and delivery now completed...

 

[camfused]

Another successful Amazon shipment and delivery now completed...

Yeah, and they did not throw it on the porch.

 

[timbervest]

The Ultimate Blow the Dough

 

[O2Bfree]

(Must resist temptation to post lines from Austin Powers...)

 

[latexman]

Now THAT, is how to really Blow That Dough!

 

[Souschef]

One of the advantages of retirement...you can watch this live and not worry about "missing" wo*k.

Watching the interview with Wally Funk was awesome...what a fantastic attitude. Our society needs a whole lotta Wallys!

Interesting- I met Wally in 1972 when she worked for the FAA, and she signed off on my Student Pilot's license.

 

[REWahoo]

Now THAT, is how to really Blow That Dough!

Rich man's roller coaster ride, at least for now. Hopefully just the first step in developing far more capable launch vehicles.

 

[O2Bfree]

...so posting the video instead, before someone else does:

 

[Major Tom]

I found the differences between Richard's and Jeff's flights interesting. This morning's flight was controlled remotely - none of the control was coming from within the vehicles. Richard's flight had 2 pilots onboard.

Like every launch and flight of this kind, I found it interesting, exciting, and quite profoundly moving. Richard wants to get the price of a suborbital flight down to around $40,000. At that price point, it will be available to a large number of people.

 

[easysurfer]

Fun to watch but still a PR feel.

 

[Dtail]

Well one question is will it become more commonplace down the road?
Airplane flying in its early stages was seen just as a vehicle for the rich and is now more useful and commonplace.

 

[ivinsfan]

Yea whatever, just one more example of how the big dogs whine about their privacy and then do stuff like this...



Though I did wonder what would happen to Amazon stock price if the thing blew up!...

 

[Chuckanut]

First: Happy Moon Landing Day!

The key to understanding this flight is that it is part of the restructuring of space travel driven by private enterprise.

Let's look at the old-line rocket companies for a moment. They still launch satellites and humans into space with one expensive throw away rocket. One launch, one rocket, build a brand new rocket and do it again. Supposedly, ULA is working on returning the engines to Earth and re-using them. How far have they got with that? One official of ArianSpace is on record as wondering about all the unemployed rocket makers if rockets become reusable. (Note: check out the airline industry for ideas.) Our own SLS project is years and years behind schedule and Billions and Billions over budget. The SLS estimated cost is one to two billion dollars a launch depending on accounting methods. And this is using old technology from the Space Shuttle. The Russians are going to do something great, maybe, whenever, don't hold your breath. And the Chinese method of advancement is to steal everybody else's tech.

It's going to take a radical restructuring of the space business to get it into the 21st century. Thankfully we have rich guys with some vision. Mr. Bezo's pop-gun rocket is just the start for his company. Hopefully, he will continue with New Glenn and beyond. My guess is that is one of the reasons he left Amazon to be run by others. The newbies are not doing anything the old-line rocket companies couldn't do technically. But, they were/are too comfortable to get off their collective behinds.

OK. Rant off. My 2¢.

 

[Freedom56]

The key to understanding this flight is that it is part of the restructuring of space travel driven by private enterprise.

Let's look at the old-line rocket companies for a moment. They still launch satellites and humans into space with one expensive throw away rocket. One launch, one rocket, build a brand new rocket and do it again. Supposedly, ULA is working on returning the engines to Earth and re-using them. How far have they got with that? One official of ArianSpace is on record as wondering about all the unemployed rocket makers if rockets become reusable. (Note: check out the airline industry for ideas.) Our own SLS project is years and years behind schedule and Billions and Billions over budget. The SLS estimated cost is one to two billion dollars a launch depending on accounting methods. And this is using old technology from the Space Shuttle. The Russians are going to something great, maybe, whenever, don't hold your breath. And the Chinese method of advancement is to steal everybody else's tech.

It's going to take a radical restructuring of the space business to get it into the 21st century. Thankfully we have rich guys with some vision. Mr. Bezo's pop-gun rocket is just the start for his company. Hopefully, he will continue with New Glenn and beyond. My guess is that is one of the reasons he left Amazon to be run by others. The newbies are not doing anything the old-line rocket companies couldn't do technically. But, they were/are too comfortable to get off their collective behinds.

OK. Rant off. My 2¢.

If it was not for corporate welfare, ULA would be out of business. They are still operating in the mode of I can bribe officials and win overpriced contracts. They still don't even manufacture their own rocket engines and buy them from Russia. With launch vehicles from Spacex and Blue Origin, ULA will be out of business this decade. It will be more and more difficult for DOD and NASA to justify paying the premium prices that ULA charges per launch.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

...so posting the video instead, before someone else does:

Thanks for posting, I loved these movies and now I have plenty time on my hands to find and watch them again.

 

[MichaelB]

So, this morning at 9am there was a sudden decline in income inequality here in the US. It was short lived, however, and by 9:30 it was back to its previous level.

Perhaps that’s an example of revert to mean?

 

[ls99]

These boys have expensive toys.

 

[audreyh1]

Where was the earth view from inside the capsule? Did they post that stuff later?

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Where was the earth view from inside the capsule? Did they post that stuff later?

You had to pay for that view.

 

[tulak]

Chuckanut’s analysis above is good. Even though this was another suborbital flight, I was impressed with the landing of the booster. New Shepherd has a great track record of booster recovery. It’s a real rocket and I suspect that Blue Origin will go orbital in the next few years. I don’t have the same expectation with Virgin Galactic.

I seem to recall hearing that New Shepherd is basically the first stage rocket for New Glenn. I tried to find this online, but couldn’t, so I must have heard it during today’s launch?

I was impressed with how smoothly the rocket performed. I’m glad we’re finally seeing advancement in access to space.