Wally Funk And Three Crewmates Travel To Space And Back In Under 15 Minutes (npr.org) 150
NPR: Wearing a cowboy hat under the West Texas morning sun, Jeff Bezos crossed the bridge to enter the capsule made by his company Blue Origin. He was accompanied by three others -- his brother Mark Bezos, female aviation pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. Then the shuttle hatch closed and just before 9:15 a.m. ET, the four blasted into space on the first human flight on Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle. Bezos is the second billionaire this month to reach the edge of space: Richard Branson rocketed there last week aboard a vessel made by his company Virgin Galactic. The date of the New Shepard's maiden launch is no accident: July 20 was the day in 1969 that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. Further reading: 'Mercury 13' pilot Wally Funk carried 60 years of history to space on Blue Origin flight.
Now, they need to get an orbital going (Score:2)
In addition, they need to have multiple private space stations up there for training, etc and more importantly, competition.
Congratulations to everyone involved (Score:5, Insightful)
It appeared to be a flawless flight (with the exception of the hold at 15 minutes).
Personally, I found the Blue Origin commentary to be somewhat grating and I am highly skeptical of the prediction that they're going to get thousands of people taking the trip.
Overall nicely done!
Re:Congratulations to everyone involved (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. The commentary was amateurish and seemingly uneducated. I kept asking, "Where did they find this person?" the whole time.
I also felt the dialogue from the capsule to the crew underscored a lack of respect for what can still go fatally wrong in such an endeavor. Celebrate and enjoy the moment, yes, but give the crew the information they need quickly and clearly to ensure your safety.
Re: (Score:2)
Was there anything they could do? I got the impression it was on autopilot and they couldn't fly it themselves.
Kinda lame joyride really, no orbit like the USSR managed 60 years ago.
better late than never? (Score:2)
2. sixty two years is a damn long time to wait for a flight.
Re:better late than never? (Score:5, Insightful)
1. oldest & youngest astronaut on the same ride. 2. sixty two years is a damn long time to wait for a flight.
There are plenty of Astronauts who never have and will never go to space.
I am super excited and happy that Wally Funk got to take a ride to space. You go girl! That must have been some moment when she was told of the offer. I'm a little disappointed that it's being hailed for the reasons it is being hailed.
Re: (Score:2)
I am super excited and happy that Wally Funk got to take a ride to space. You go girl! That must have been some moment when she was told of the offer.
No doubt. She's been trying to go to space for her entire, long, life, and worked her butt off to make it possible. But, they didn't let women fly when she was young, and by the time women were flying she was too old to qualify as a shuttle pilot. It's fantastic that she was finally able to realize her dream, even if only briefly.
Makes me a little misty-eyed, no exaggeration.
Re: (Score:2)
You go girl!
That's quite the trashy and ignorant way to congratulate someone of her generation but what's a little cultural unawareness to a Millennial, right??
Never miss an opportunity to express outrage over something. Hairtriggered much? Or just having a bad day, and need to vent?
Re:better late than never? (Score:5, Funny)
sixty two years is a damn long time to wait for a flight.
Pffft! I've waited for United delays.
Re: (Score:2)
2. sixty two years is a damn long time to wait for a flight.
Said the person who probably never got bumped to standby on U.S. Scare.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
The competition between these companies, and many others that will pop up, will enable cheaper traveling of people... and goods.
It will be ironic that billionaires and alike will actually help society, indirectly though, by financing the costs of developing this technology cheaper for large-scale when it has been society, up to a point, the one paying most of the price for the wealth of these people. An
Not really ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
It will be ironic that billionaires and alike will actually help society, indirectly though, by financing the costs of developing this technology cheaper
But this is how progress mostly works, through all of human history...
For example, Standard Oil started by selling kerosine like many other companies. But you know how they grew to become massive? Because making kerosine left a ton of unwanted (at the time) petroleum as a byproduct, and the guy who ran Standard Oil saved all of it instead of throwing it away, then started figuring out what could be made from it - inventing Vaseline, among other things, and refining gasoline when cars came around. All because he had the foresight not to get rid of what others considered waste.
Throughout history rich people and companies have often used a lot of that capital to expand into new products and do things that have not been done before...
So remember that everyone, before you seek to take down the rich people and companies with massive taxes. What sort of future innovation will you be destroying to pay some federal worker that produces nothing?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It will be ironic that billionaires and alike will actually help society, indirectly
Umm not this is pretty much exactly how capitalism, free persuit of happiness are supposed to result in.
Re:PR (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a like/dislike feeling about Musk, and I really don't want to take anything away from the teams at BO or VG who have done serious work and amazing output, but I will say this:
Virgin Galactic - For our first manned flight, we sent people to an altitude of ~85km
Blue Origin - For our first manned flight, we sent people to an altitude of ~106km
SpaceX - For our first manned flight, we sent people to an altitude of ~408km. We also docked and undocked with the ISS autonomously. We also spent 64 days in orbit. We also made it through atmospheric reentry. We also did a lot science. We even created new space suits. We also did all that over a year before you guys did your thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:PR (Score:5, Insightful)
IMHO, they were trying to do something as quickly as possible in order to get a piece of the Artemis Program. They really want a piece of that government money for future development....
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:PR (Score:4, Insightful)
Regular air travel started out... back in the "barnstormer" days... as frivolous entertainment by and for people who had money to burn. Hell, within living memory if you were programming computers you either worked for the government... most likely breaking Russian codes or building bombs and missiles with which to nuke them... or you were a rich (or tenured faculty) dilettante fooling around with absurdly expensive and inaccessible (For any normal middle-class person.) kit.
Right now, civilian space travel is where the Curtis Jenny and Xerox Alto were in computing; and the government is operating Douglas C-47s and DEC PDP-11s. But eventually all that gave way to the Cessna 172 and Apple ][. And now we have 787s and AWS. But you don't get to the everyday mass-market without early adopters willing to take chances and pay through the nose.
Re: PR (Score:2)
I'm curious. Two questions:
1) Do you people expect random street bums to advance access to space for public- and private-sector applications?
2) If not, have you contacted your legislators to advocate increased government spending on this?
Because otherwise, those Evil Capitalist Billionaires are the only ones moving us forward. It's unfortunate that the best/only way you can help is to STFU and get out of the way, but it's also absolutely true.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Russians - For our first manned flight we orbited the planet when Musk was trying to figure out long division. 60 years ago. But, uh, good job guys.
There's a big difference between government space travel and private enterprise. During the space race the USA and USSR burned money at an unbelievable rate, with no need to even think about making it a self-sustaining operation. Musk, Bezos and Branson have all burned through a lot of money to get up there, but they all have a lot more constraints, including a need to make their vehicles reusable to get costs down. They also have access to vastly better technology, too, of course.
Re: (Score:3)
"We need to do something to get the public to focus on how space is the future and we're revolutionizing the industry!"
"I know, let's send some billionaires into space on an expensive joy ride, at least one of whom is wildly unpopular right now because of unaddressed issues about how his employees are treated!"
I really think both this and the Branson trip were bad ideas. I can't stand Elon Musk with a passion but I'm glad he has the sense to let SpaceX do its spacering with regular, paid, astronauts (for manned flights) and actual utilitarian missions. Then again, Musk has always understood marketing and PR better than the others.
All I can say is that in the late 1950's, there was a country that were way beyond the USA's spacefaring abilities, putting satellites into orbit, while we were practicing blowing up rockets a few feet off the launchpad. They had a number of firsts, and the USA looked lamer with each kaboom failure, and Russia's continued success.
It didn't end up that way in the end though, did it?
So yes, Ol Muskie is further along, parts of his work being standard Rocketry, but the Starship work is looking surprising
Re: (Score:2)
But SpaceX can land their boosters! On a ship! Yeeehaw!
And it's a pretty cool trick. But I've always wondered how much it actually costs to refurbish these first stages. And if that includes the cost of the fleet of ships, the towing and retrieval of the first stages, then the refurb process. As well as the limited launch ranges due to retrieval limits.
I don't see other rocket launchers rushing to do the same.
Re: (Score:2)
At least with Branson people want to like him, because of the hair.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"I know, let's send some billionaires into space on an expensive joy ride, at least one of whom is wildly unpopular right now because of unaddressed issues about how his employees are treated!"
I really think both this and the Branson trip were bad ideas. I can't stand Elon Musk with a passion
Ummm, I am unsure if you are aware of this or not ... and its cool if you are not ... but you sound kind of like a hater. Hating is not all bad; wait, yes it is. But I would never accuse you of it. I am merely saying that you SOUND like one.
Congratulations, but best quote from a CBC article (Score:5, Insightful)
Not everyone in the remote, desert town of Van Horn was excited about the drama unfolding 40 kilometres to the north.
"It's a luxury that's going to be set aside for the wealthy," [www.cbc.ca] said pizza shop owner Jesus Ramirez. He planned to watch the morning launch from his restaurant's patio with a cup of coffee.
But I'm pleased Wally Funk was included. At least a little class was shown.
Re: (Score:2)
It's true, some things do cost a lot of money, and are thus available only to the wealthy. Things that are new do tend to be expensive. That initial design and testing process costs a lot. The first cars were out of reach by any but the wealthy. Cruise control, turbocharged engines, and intermittent wipers used to be only on upscale cars. Over time, these things tend to come down in price. Space travel may never be cheap, but it may become attainable for a much larger number of people. Even if right now, sp
Karmic good-will (Score:5, Funny)
I feel like Bezos brought Wally Funk along for Karmic good-will of sorts... Like we can't all hope for the rocket carrying Lil' Lex Luthor to explode on launch if it's also got her aboard...
Jokes aside, I'm glad an amazing woman got this well-earned experience, and that this story is bringing another lesser known pioneer of space & science to light.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Who Was Flying? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You've got to admit, it would make a hell of a carnival ride. Maybe that'll be where it ends up.
Re: (Score:2)
If there is no pilot then it is just a toy.
It’s about ten thousand times cooler than the toys I play with.
Re: (Score:3)
Let's see them scale this up (Score:2)
Everyone pointing out this is just a playtoy for the uber-wealthy is correct but it doesn't really have to stay that way. If this platform, which has taken them years and years to develop is as mature as one would expect it to be they should have a few more rockets and capsules next year. Maybe by 2023 there are a dozen or so of these, with a 3-4x a week launch cadence. That should drop the ticket price from the millions into the hundreds if not tens of thousands at that point.
Falcon 9 is up to 9 or 10 f
Re: (Score:2)
I think a "a 3-4x a week launch cadence" is a lot further away than 2023.
Would I bet heavily against it? Probably not but I would be willing to put a few dollars down that this time frame is a bit unrealistic.
Re: (Score:2)
What is the carbon footprint per person per trip for this carnival ride?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The better question is how much water vapor are they putting into a part of the atmosphere that usually contains close to zero water vapor. Remembering that water vapor is a way more potential greenhouse gas then CO2.
Re: (Score:2)
When it comes to scaling up and/or making it closer to something practical, Virgin actually has the edge.
The Virgin configuration could take off from a regular airport. I'm not sure what the FAA would have to say about landing a glider at a regular airport; but if they could carry just enough fuel for a couple go-arounds then maybe they could land at a regular airport. Now if you can stretch that suborbital flight across the continent, then you've got yourself a hypersonic transport that takes off and land
Re: Let's see them scale this up (Score:2)
That's actually a pretty interesting idea.
My thought on BO scaling it up is even with the parachutes and capsule it's simpler than the VG vehicles. Probably simpler to build, no second aircraft, pilotless. I figure once they have the design it may not be that expensive relatively to build say 5-10 more.
I have no idea what the financials are for either vehicle, if they can keep getting 7 figures a ticket they may not care about more ships.
Is this a PR release from another (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So did Jeff really get to space?
It all depends on who you ask. Technically, it is an international agreement that space starts at 100km from earth (the Karman Line) but astronomers and others would probably disagree with this limit and say that space is a lot further out from earth than that.
P.S. for NASA and the US military the limit is only 50km from earth and anyone going beyond this point is considered an astronaut.
Re: (Score:2)
P.S. for NASA and the US military the limit is only 50km from earth and anyone going beyond this point is considered an astronaut.
50 miles, not 50 km.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry you are correct. I was looking at the NASA site and forgot to convert the miles into kilometers. OOPS. 8^(
Re: (Score:2)
Good on the headline (Score:2)
Sending Wally Funk to space was the best thing about this flight. I couldn't care less about another billionaire flying on his toy rocket.
not a shuttle (Score:4, Informative)
Then the shuttle hatch closed
It's a capsule, not a shuttle.
Re: (Score:2)
Well it did shuttle [merriam-webster.com] them to "space" and back even if it isn't a Shuttle. [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
And it looks like a bit of a hack job. Their process for this point in the launch was not very well planned [youtu.be], I'm assuming much of the rest was not great either.
Rightfully re-titled (Score:2)
Congrats to the submitter for fixing NPR's title in ./
Bezos the greatest human ever? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
His company employees 100K+ people.
That company is putting many more than that out of business, laying waste to the retail landscape both brick-and-mortar and online. It's reducing consumer choice, doing end runs around consumer protection by commingling inventory, it's sabotaging the one recourse we have against that(customer reviews) and enjoying all sorts of advantages from its absurd size. It treats its employees badly. Bezos is more like Gengis Khan.
Re: (Score:2)
That company is putting many more than that out of business, laying waste to the retail landscape both brick-and-mortar and online.
Amazon hasn't put any other company out of business. It's the consumers who have done that. Amazon isn't holding a gun to consumers and saying "buy from Amazon or else." No, consumers have been free to buy from where they want during the 20+ years that Amazon online shopping has existed. Other stores had could sold goods online before Amazon came into existence, and they could done so after Amazon came into existence. Consumers have spoken with their wallets, and Amazon has been winning. It's really that si
Re: (Score:2)
Amazon hasn't put any other company out of business. It's the consumers who have done that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Uah. I just threw up reading your post. I hope you're being sarcastic about a guy who destroyed book stores, is doing his best to destroy the shopping industry in an effort to create the world's biggest retail monopoly, takes zero responsibility for the products he sells on his store, engages in modern day slavery causing many of the 100K+ people in his employ to piss into bottles to avoid taking bathroom breaks which would affect their work performance and see them penalised.
The rest of your post is a love
Re: (Score:2)
Bezos is like a modern day Alexander the Great.
A murderer who inspired thousands of later wannabe leaders to also be murderers?
If it weren't for Alexander, then Napoleon would have happily established democracy in France. Instead, he decided to conquer Europe, like Alexander.
Half an Armstrong (Score:2, Interesting)
The first Mercury Astronaut, Armstrong, went up about twice as high in the US's first launch.
Armstrong was an amazing man (Score:2)
The first Mercury Astronaut, Armstrong, went up about twice as high in the US's first launch.
As well as piloting the first suborbital flight, he single handed killed Ho Chi Minh in a sword duel and cured cancer while perfecting the fusion reactor.
This must be true, I got it from the same book that said he was the first Mercury Astronaut, unanimously selected by the UN Security Council.
Buckaroo Bonzai has nothing on him.
Re: (Score:2)
As well as piloting the first suborbital flight, he single handed killed Ho Chi Minh in a sword duel and cured cancer while perfecting the fusion reactor.
It's all true. Then afterwards he returned home to his wife, Morgan Fairchild, whom he's seen naked.
Bezos in a cowboy hat (Score:2, Funny)
What do cowboy hats and hemorrhoids have in common?
Sooner or later every asshole gets one.
+1 for the article title!!! (Score:2)
Amazon app (Score:5, Funny)
Scheduling Conflicts (Score:4, Interesting)
I still find myself wondering about the person who spent $28 million on a ticket then didn't go due to "scheduling conflicts".
Like did they get reservations at an ultra-exclusive restaurant? Didn't realize it conflicted with their hair cut appointment?
Maybe they weren't really paying attention when they bought the ticket and "scheduling conflicts" is just their blanket excuse when ditching a commitment they don't want to do.
Re: Scheduling Conflicts (Score:2)
More likely, his wife/company realised that stunts in an experimental spacecraft are not covered by the life insurance policy.
Re: (Score:2)
They forgot to check their Outlook calendar when they signed up.
Re: (Score:2)
I would have rather taken the Virgin Galactic ride (Score:2)
A Giant Dick Rose Into Space (Score:2)
Inside his penis-shaped spaceship.
Fifteen minutes? (Score:2)
I hope Jeff took a piss bottle with him.
k.
Re: (Score:2)
What would have been accomplished if he did? Nothing.
If you truly hate a person, you would rather they get locked up in jail for the rest of their lives, realizing every day that they are there because of how bad of a person they are.
Not a guy going out with the last thing on his mind, "Man this is so cool!"
Also what did Jeff Bezos actually did to hurt your or your loved ones?
Re: (Score:2)
Also what did Jeff Bezos actually did to hurt your or your loved ones?
Remember when Walmart used to be the worst employers in retail? Well, Bezos found a way to be worse. Much worse. In fact, so bad that Amazon regularly appears in OSHA's "Dirty Dozen" worst employers in the USA.
Re: (Score:2)
Amazon regularly appears in OSHA's "Dirty Dozen"
Citation needed. I wasn't able to locate any OSHA dirty dozen, it looks like it's something put out by COSH, who is not OSHA. It doesn't look like Amazon is on their 2020 list but did make "honorable mention":
It doesn't seem to me like they have any methodology, who makes their list seems to be a political decision. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Amazon cares about their workers
Re:FUCK (Score:5, Insightful)
The best way to inform someone they are misinformed is to start with an insult. Might I suggest you try replacing liar with "You are misinformed". Assuming the worst upfront is why we have such a terrible country as it is.
Re: (Score:2)
"They are trying to mislead everyone."
- OMBad
"He is not misinformed."
- Also OMBad
Re: (Score:2)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 23, clause 4: "Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests."
If an employer has a problem with this, then it is well within ethical and moral bounds to force him into compliance via acts of intimidation, threats, slander, blackmail, assault, destruction of property, arson, and murder, preferably in that order.
Re: FUCK (Score:3)
I was just hoping that he'd return to Talos IV, his home planet. He's an illegal alien, after all.
Re:FUCK (Score:5, Insightful)
So you want Space X (owed by an other eccentric billionaire) to get a monopoly in commercial space flight? Or do you fail to realize that a Company can survive without its leader, as a company large enough like Blue Origin would have a large complex leadership model where if something would happen to Bezos that there was still a business plan moving further.
Granted having an accident where there was death on a Blue Origin flight, wouldn't be good for business. However most companies have PR that can probably gloss over this in no time flat.
However still even if you are Muskatere, a fan of NASA, or a Boeing employee. What has Blue Origin done to you that would be such an ire of all your hate, to where you want people to die?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
So you are wishing people would die, because you don't like a companies business plan?
Well, Amazon's business plan does include making about million employees' lives miserable & causing them physical harm (workplace injuries) at extraordinarily high rates. So yeah, just like I didn't like the European fascists' manifesto, I'd like the big tech purveyors of human suffering to go away & die.
A sense of proportion (Score:2)
Well, Amazon's business plan does include making about million employees' lives miserable & causing them physical harm (workplace injuries) at extraordinarily high rates.
Amazon's warehouse injuries in 2020 -- when the warehouses were being slammed with pandemic demand -- where 658 out of a workforce of 581,000. This is a 2x higher rate than for workers at Walmart warehouses, but hardly "extraordinarily high". And isn't the suffering of "millions".
Re: (Score:2)
How did you turn "making about a million employees' lives miserable" into "the suffering of millions"? And how is doubling the next highest rate of injuries in the same sector not extra-ordinarily high? How high does it have to get for it to be not OK?
Re:FUCK (Score:4, Insightful)
So you want Space X (owed by an other eccentric billionaire) to get a monopoly in commercial space flight?
Is it reasonable to believe that *in the near future* any of the other contenders can really overtake SpaceX? From where I sit, I'd say that SpaceX has built up an unassailable lead in first-generation commercial crewed spaceflight, and a strong and growing position in commercial uncrewed spaceflight. What I mean by "first generation" here is that my belief is that SpaceX is going to suck all the money out of the room for the immediate future. They have a proven solution. Everyone else needs millions of dollars more in research and prototyping to reach the same point SpaceX is at today. If I was investing $250M, or even just spending $250M on launches, would I invest in the second place contender - who might not even reach the finish line - or in a proven thing? Musk could evaporate tomorrow and SpaceX would continue as a going concern with money coming in and rockets going up.
It is my belief that the people who aren't SpaceX are going to need to continue to be spoonfed cash from individual investors (eccentrics :)) until the market for commercial crewed spaceflight is significantly bigger and can support two or more players of SpaceX's size with a meaningful degree of engineering competition between them. Right now it's a NASA team vs several college senior projects.
Re: (Score:2)
From where I sit, I'd say that SpaceX has built up an unassailable lead in first-generation commercial crewed spaceflight, and a strong and growing position in commercial uncrewed spaceflight.
Do you know how competitors win when their opponent has an unassailable lead? Steady effort.
Re: (Score:2)
Do you know how competitors win when their opponent has an unassailable lead? Steady effort.
Did you see how I caveated what I said? I simply do not think there is enough money in the marketplace TODAY to fund "steady effort" for the also-rans right now, so they are going to keep moving more slowly than SpaceX and thus remain behind it. Hence "first-generation". At some point the carnival ride type space tourism industry will generate enough money to cross some kind of inflection point and allow one (probably not more than one) of the current trailing contenders to accelerate and start taking Space
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
SpaceX is well on its way to be a monopoly in space flight.
Bezos went to the edge of space, hitting a top speed of mach 3. Which is impressive, but is just going up and down. While SpaceX is able to reach orbital speeds - mach 22+. Remember orbiting objects are still subjected to gravity, they are in continuous free-fall, but moving fast enough that they keep missing the earth.
Remember kinetic e
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:FUCK (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course he didn't die: he brought 3 hostages with him, so that whoever had the idea of sabotaging his craft or sending him to parking orbit for the next 20,000 years would have second thoughts.
Re:FUCK (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not interested in seeing him die. At least he's spending his money on something interesting and possibly useful, instead of spending it on "philanthropic" projects in every country but his own.
Now, if that rocket had landed on Bill Gates house, I might be a little more enthusiastic.
Re: (Score:2)
I've seen this comment a lot this morning. Why so much hate for Jeff Bezos? Unlike, say, Dorsey and Zuckerberg, Bezos provides a valuable service that has personally saved me a lot of money and thousands of miles of driving. In my rural area there never were any brick-and-mortar stores for most of what I have bought on Amazon. Oh, and it's also where I get 98% of my reading.
So he going to return as CEO? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
As Elon says "Hold my beer, I will show you what going to space actually means"
Oh, he's planning a visit to Alpha Centauri now? Perhaps he can give me a lift to Arrakis.