Tag: New Shepard

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Blue Origin resets schedule for space milestones

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith shows a video of a BE-4 rocket engine firing during the Aerospace Futures Alliance Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is now planning to send its first crew on a suborbital space trip during the first half of 2019, and launch its first orbital-class New Glenn rocket in 2021.

That’s the word from Bob Smith, CEO of the Kent, Wash.-based company, who spoke here today at the Aerospace Futures Alliance Summit.

The schedule represents a slight shift to the right for Blue Origin’s development plan, which had been targeting this year for the first crewed flight of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship and 2020 for New Glenn’s first flight. That’s not totally unexpected, considering the challenges involved.

Even that schedule is ambitious. “We’ve got a lot of work on our hands,” Smith told the audience.

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Blue Origin’s timeline for flying people slips

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith today signaled that the Kent, Wash.-based space company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is aiming to start flying people on suborbital space trips “early next year,” rather than later this year as previously envisioned.

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New Shepard hits new heights in test spaceflight

Blue Origin New Shepard spaceship
Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship blasts off for an escape system test. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

As Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos watched, his Blue Origin space venture sent its reusable New Shepard spaceship to its highest-ever altitude today during a successful test of a rocket motor that’s meant to be used only in emergencies.

The climax of the uncrewed test flight came shortly after New Shepard’s capsule separated from its booster and switched on its 70,000-pound-thrust escape rocket motor.

As planned, the high-altitude firing pushed the capsule past the boundary of outer space, to an unofficial maximum altitude of 389,846 feet, or 119 kilometers. Maximum ascent velocity was listed at 2,236 mph.

Then both the booster and the capsule made picture-perfect landings back at Blue Origin’s West Texas test site, within sight of the launch pad. The entire mission lasted 11 minutes and 17 seconds.

“Anything could have happened today, and this is the best possible outcome,” launch commentator Ariane Cornell said.

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Blue Origin counts down to spaceship escape test

Blue Origin spaceship on pad
Blue Origin is preparing its New Shepard suborbital spaceship for a test flight that’s expected to push the envelope. (Blue Origin Photo)

Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, says it’ll push its New Shepard suborbital spaceship “to its limits” during its ninth flight test.

The test is set to take place as early as 8 a.m. PT July 18.

In a tweet, the company said it would conduct a high-altitude escape motor test to check the procedure for an emergency late in the flight sequence. A follow-up tweet said Blue Origin’s website would offer live video and commentary from its West Texas test facility, starting 20 minutes before launch.

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$200K to go to space? Blue Origin downplays claim

An artist’s conception shows passengers looking through one of the windows in Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. (Blue Origin Illustration)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space venture, Blue Origin, is playing down reports that a suborbital space trip on its New Shepard rocket ship could cost $200,000 to $300,000.

“We have not set ticket pricing and have had no serious discussions inside of Blue on this topic,” Blue Origin said in an emailed statement. “We will begin selling tickets sometime after our first human flights and are focused on developing New Shepard.”

Blue Origin has flown eight uncrewed flight tests of the New Shepard spacecraft, which consists of a reusable booster that flies itself back to a landing and a crew capsule that floats back down at the end of a parachute.

Further uncrewed flight tests reaching as high as 100 kilometers, the internationally recognized boundary of space, are expected in the months ahead. Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith told GeekWire in April that the company is aiming to start flying people by the end of this year.

Those people won’t be commercial customers, however.

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Jeff Bezos strikes a fashion pose for Blue Origin

Bezos with boots
Jeff Bezos shows off his “Gradatim Ferociter” boots. (Jeff Bezos via Twitter)

If being Amazon’s CEO ever gets tiresome for Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest human, he could always turn to a career modeling Western wear.

Bezos demonstrated that today after the successful test flight of his Blue Origin venture’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. In his apres-landing photo shoot, shared via Twitter, Bezos wears a cowboy hat, Blue Origin shirt, jeans, sunglasses and cowboy boots as he leans against the New Shepard crew capsule.

The boots are the piece de resistance.

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Blue Origin sends suborbital rocket to new heights

New Shepard launch
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship, dubbed RSS H.G. Wells, blasts off from its West Texas launch pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture notched another record today when it sent its New Shepard suborbital spaceship on its highest-ever round trip to space.

It was the eighth uncrewed test flight for the New Shepard program, and the second go-around for this particular spaceship, which is dubbed RSS H.G. Wells in honor of the English science-fiction writer and futurist.

RSS H.G. Wells flew for first time last December, and was refurbished in line with Blue Origin’s strategy for rocket reusability. On that flight, the craft rose to a height of 99.39 kilometers, just shy of the 100-kilometer Karman Line that defines the internationally accepted boundary of outer space.

The target altitude for this flight was a record-setting 106.7 kilometers, or 350,000 feet. After today’s picture-perfect launch and landing, Bezos reported in a tweet that the craft reached 351,000 feet (107 kilometers).

“That’s the altitude we’ve been targeting for operations,” he said. “One step closer.”

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Jeff Bezos gets set for Blue Origin test launch

New Shepard on pad
Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship stands on its pad for a 2016 test flight. (Blue Origin File Photo)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos says his Blue Origin space venture is targeting the next test flight of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship for Sunday.

Word of the launch came today in a tweet. And yes, there will be streaming video.

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Jobs hint Blue Origin will soon sign up astronauts

An artist’s conception shows passengers looking through one of the windows in Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. (Blue Origin Illustration)

Some of the nearly 200 job opportunities posted by Blue Origin suggest Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space venture is preparing to sign up passengers for its New Shepard suborbital spaceflights.

One listing is looking for an astronaut experience manager to help create “a highly differentiated offering that culminates in the customer becoming an astronaut.”

Another listing calls for someone to run a training program for New Shepard flight controllers.

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Get a dummy’s-eye view of Blue Origin rocket ride

Test dummy
An instrumented test dummy, nicknamed “Mannequin Skywalker,” sits next to one of the huge windows in the New Shepard crew capsule. (Blue Origin Photo)

What will people experience when they rocket to the edge of space on the New Shepard suborbital spaceship that’s currently being tested by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin venture?

An 11-minute video, recorded inside the crew capsule during this week’s test flight in West Texas, gives you a pretty good idea.

You can even watch the flight’s effect on a test subject — in this case, an instrumented crash-test dummy nicknamed “Mannequin Skywalker.” (For those who have been on another planet for the past 20 years, that name’s a tribute to Anakin Skywalker, a central character in the “Star Wars” saga.)

One of the big takeaways is that there’s no crash: At the end of the ride, the capsule drifts down to the ground and lands with what looks like a relatively gentle floof.

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