Blue Origin Just Launched Six More Passengers to the Edge of Space (cbsnews.com) 31
Just four weeks after an early June flight to the edge of space, Blue Origin has again carried six more passengers there and back again, reports CBS News, noting that the 10-minute ride was Blue Origin's 13th flight "out of the discernible atmosphere."
The New Shepard capsule's stubby single-stage booster roared to life just after 9:38 a.m. EDT, throttled up to full thrust and smoothly climbed away from Blue Origin's launch site near Van Horn, Texas. The hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine powering the New Shepard fired for about two-and-a-half minutes, accelerating the spacecraft to just under three times the speed of sound.
The capsule then separated from the booster and continued coasting upward along its up-and-down trajectory. At that point, the passengers — Allie and Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Freddie Rescigno Jr., Jim Sitkin and Owolabi Salis, the first Nigerian to fly in space — began enjoying about three minutes of weightlessness. Free to unstrap and float about the cabin, the passengers were able to take in the view through the largest windows in any operational spacecraft as the ship climbed to an altitude of just above 65 miles. That's about three miles higher than the internationally recognized boundary between the discernible atmosphere and space.
The capsule then began falling back to Earth and the passengers returned to their seats for the descent to touchdown. The reusable booster, meanwhile, made its own return to the launch site, dropping tail first to a rocket-powered touchdown... The company has now launched 74 passengers, including Bezos' wife Lauren Sánchez, and four who have flown twice.
By April nearly 120 civilians had already travelled to the edge of space, CBS News reported earlier — while Virgin Galactic is expected to resume flights next year.
You can replay the webcast of the mission on Blue Origin's YouTube channel.
The capsule then separated from the booster and continued coasting upward along its up-and-down trajectory. At that point, the passengers — Allie and Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Freddie Rescigno Jr., Jim Sitkin and Owolabi Salis, the first Nigerian to fly in space — began enjoying about three minutes of weightlessness. Free to unstrap and float about the cabin, the passengers were able to take in the view through the largest windows in any operational spacecraft as the ship climbed to an altitude of just above 65 miles. That's about three miles higher than the internationally recognized boundary between the discernible atmosphere and space.
The capsule then began falling back to Earth and the passengers returned to their seats for the descent to touchdown. The reusable booster, meanwhile, made its own return to the launch site, dropping tail first to a rocket-powered touchdown... The company has now launched 74 passengers, including Bezos' wife Lauren Sánchez, and four who have flown twice.
By April nearly 120 civilians had already travelled to the edge of space, CBS News reported earlier — while Virgin Galactic is expected to resume flights next year.
You can replay the webcast of the mission on Blue Origin's YouTube channel.
Space tourism (Score:3)
Re:Space tourism (Score:4)
It's a lot more palatable without the grandstanding, like when they launched the first Katy Perry into space a few months ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. A big fat "So what?"
Best,
Whoop de doo! (Score:3)
Way gone past caring.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
So, you saw the edge between our atmosphere and space for a couple minutes... call me when you spend six months on the ISS, or drive a Tesla on the moon.
A neat photo opportunity, but not much more than that, hardly a 'headline'.
Re: (Score:2)
Again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are we going to have to see an article about this every time they make a trip? It's not like they are doing anything important with these launches. Just rich people doing rich people things.
Set SCE to AUX (Re:Again?) (Score:2, Interesting)
While this is becoming routine by now every launch is an opportunity to learn more to improve safety and comfort for the passengers. Lessons like "set SCE to AUX" with Apollo 12. Also learned on that trip was to not remove the lens cap on the camera until solidly in place as it could be accidentally pointed to the sun and burn out the sensitive sensors. Or to use a more mundane automotive example, we could learn to properly secure the floor mats so they don't accidentally cover the accelerator when climb
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Oh fuck off you sycophant. By this logic every time Jeff Bezos walks down the stairs it's an opporunity to learn how deep the carpet should be so that he doesn't slip and get a bruise on his ankle, and so we get a /. post about it.
Or we could accept that rich twats doing rich twat things are at best worthless, and in actual fact incredibly damaging to the rest of us and the planet we live on. This isn't teaching us about how to better put satellites in orbit - it only goes a fraction of the way, and we kno
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe, but are they learning anything useful? Or are they just learning how to more reliably give rich people a quick thrill for a lot of money?
It's not clear this is a stepping stone to anything else. Three minutes of weightlessness isn't useful for a lot. If they were going to LEO, that would be useful. Launching satellites would be useful. But are these tourist flights moving them any closer to that? Or is getting money from billionaires the end in itself?
Re: (Score:2)
Are we going to have to see an article about this every time they make a trip? It's not like they are doing anything important with these launches. Just rich people doing rich people things.
Er, the only way space travel will become routine is by ... becoming routine?
Re: Again? (Score:2)
Re: Again? (Score:3)
These suborbital hops are spaceflight as much as standing on an interstate overpass is a road trip. Yeah, you're technically there in a uselessly pedantic definition of there, but making minutes-long suborbital launches routine really doesn't do much towards making LEO or interplanetary travel routine which would actually be genuine advancement.
Space Fuckery (Score:1)
Er, the only way space travel will become routine is by ... becoming routine?
It's not "space travel" except for the 30 seconds up and 30 seconds down past atmo.
It's not even "space tourism" if you have to train for weeks and go up for minutes to get that little ol' jaunt.
It's space fuckery, and Blue Penis is leading it. Before that Sir Richard WhiteTeethSailBoat was. Two
pieces of shit who could contribute so much to education, environment, and technology instead just
padding their pockets by sending rich idiots into almost-space.
I like Jeff Bezos as much as I like tofu and polyeste
Fabulous (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sure they were glamorous.
Their friends will be so jealous....
Well now you've done it (Score:2)
and Owolabi Salis, the first Nigerian to fly in space
Time for leftists heads to explode like a 60s sci fi robot caught in a contradiction ...
Re: (Score:2)
Er sorry I must have missed the memo. Why is my head meant to explode?
Re: (Score:2)
Is this another one of those Nigerian Princes I keep getting emails from?
"Up and Down" vs. "Around the World" (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The only person bringing SpaceX into this is you.
Why does there have to be any comparison at all? Why does there have to be a perceived competition between what Blue Origin are doing here and what SpaceX are doing over there?
There is something broken in western news media and social media, in that everything simply *must* be a race or a competition, and if one entity in the perceived competition is behind then they shouldn't even bother - it doesn't matter that none of the actual entities themselves see th
Tax Besos? (Score:2)
Re: Tax Besos? (Score:1)
Send all world leaders up. (Score:1)
If they don't come back changed, boot em from office.
My wife flew to Paris (Score:3)
The flight was extra impressive because she's a girl. And it's always more impressive so we can say that "to all the little girls of the world, when you grow up, you can accomplish great things and let the world ignore everything else except that you're a girl. So, it's best to only do easy things like flying on a BO rocket rather than studying hard and working hard because the press doesn't reward hard work. They hype that you're impressive for being a girl".
Is it because she straight and white? Would Slashdot publicize her accomplishment if she was a different skin color or maybe a new and unexplainable sexual orientation?
Wait!!!
Great idea for Bezos. Space hookup trips. There are lots of things that are illegal on earth. He can facilitate those things by bringing rich people to space.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe he can strike a deal with Diddy.
whoop (Score:2)
Whoop-de-do.
Bezos didn't go quite far enough (Score:2)
Bezos might want to consider an alternate means of having Blue Origin passengers debark at the end of their trip. Have them ejected from the top of the spacecraft in a large stream of fluid. They would land safely in a big, pink bouncy castle of appropriate shape and size.