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Blue Origin preparing to resume test flights


Waspie_Dwarf

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Blue Origin preparing to resume test flights from West Texas

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WASHINGTON — An airspace closure notice published by the Federal Aviation Administration Dec. 9 suggests Blue Origin is preparing to resume test flights of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle after a hiatus of more than a year.

The Notice to Airman, or NOTAM, published by the FAA on its website Dec. 9 closes airspace above Blue Origin’s test site between Dec. 11 and 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern each day. The closure is to “provide a safe environment for rocket launch and recovery.”

The NOTAM does not give additional details about the planned activities, but does identify Blue Origin as the point of contact regarding the airspace closure.

arrow3.gif  Read More: SpaceNews

 

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Good for them.  And another company joins the space race.

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That is pretty cool. What is with the weird name though?

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Good thing, competition will always produce great achievements. Without rivalry things tend to stagnate.

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1 hour ago, DieChecker said:

That is pretty cool. What is with the weird name though?

Blue Origin or New Shepard?

Blue Origin is a reference to Earth being the starting point for humanity. 

All Blue Origin launch vehicles are named after astronauts. New Shepard is a tribute to the first US astronaut Alan Shepard. It will be followed by the New Glenn heavy launch vehicle and eventually by the New Armstrong. 

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58 minutes ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Blue Origin or New Shepard?

Blue Origin is a reference to Earth being the starting point for humanity. 

All Blue Origin launch vehicles are named after astronauts. New Shepard is a tribute to the first US astronaut Alan Shepard. It will be followed by the New Glenn heavy launch vehicle and eventually by the New Armstrong. 

The 'Mannequin Skywalker' dummy probes name.

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The New Shepard suborbital spacecraft, which is being designed with space tourism in mind, blasted off from the company's West Texas launch site on Tuesday carrying a sensor-laden dummy named 'Mannequin Skywalker' in honor of a familiar character from the Star Wars franchise.

 

Edited by DieChecker
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11 minutes ago, DieChecker said:

The 'Mannequin Skywalker' dummy probes name.

 

Skywalker seems an appropriate man for a mannequin that has been launched into space.

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3 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Skywalker seems an appropriate man for a mannequin that has been launched into space.

And isn't the timing perfect for the release of The Last Jedi

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53 minutes ago, Derek Willis said:

And isn't the timing perfect for the release of The Last Jedi

I'm slower than usual today. It took me ages to realise that mannequin Skywalker was a play on Anakin Skywalker. D'oh! 

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That looked like a pretty bumpy landing for the capsule. I hope they figure out a way to smooth that out a little before they start selling tickets.

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17 minutes ago, Calibeliever said:

That looked like a pretty bumpy landing for the capsule. I hope they figure out a way to smooth that out a little before they start selling tickets.

Soyuz capsules have retro-rockets that fire just before landing to smooth the impact. Perhaps Blue Origin will add the facility to their capsules when people are on board.

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17 hours ago, Calibeliever said:

That looked like a pretty bumpy landing for the capsule. I hope they figure out a way to smooth that out a little before they start selling tickets.

No need, that landing is far smoother than you give it credit for.

17 hours ago, Derek Willis said:

Soyuz capsules have retro-rockets that fire just before landing to smooth the impact. Perhaps Blue Origin will add the facility to their capsules when people are on board.

The landing speed is just 1mph, far slower than a Soyuz even with retros.

I have had a balloon flight, the landing was far rougher than New Shepard passengers will receive,  and we didn't have padded couches either.

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Talking of Mannequin Skywalker:

The landing occurs at just after the 10 minute mark. You can see from the on-board footage that the landing is probably more gentle than most airliner landings.

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6 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

The landing occurs at just after the 10 minute mark. You can see from the on-board footage that the landing is probably more gentle than most airliner landings.

Maybe you're right. Looking at it from inside the capsule like that, it doesn't look too bad. It might have been all the dust flying up that gave me the impression of a harder thud. 

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On 12/14/2017 at 8:29 PM, DieChecker said:

That is pretty cool. What is with the weird name though?

i think blue origin sounds cool. better than spacex, imo. have you seen the movie passengers? the space company is called 'homestead' now thats weird. 

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28 minutes ago, _KB_ said:

aren't windows dangerous on space crafts because they block none of the radiation from space...

No, you can't get a dangerous dose in such a short time while flying inside the Earth's magnetosphere, even if there's a solar burst.

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This is remarkable footage, to say the least.

Totally professional test mission. Very impressive!

Note: I am accepting donations to buy a future ticket that I might be the first dolphin in space...

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4 hours ago, _KB_ said:

aren't windows dangerous on space crafts because they block none of the radiation from space...

I think (?) that the windows are a special, very expensive composite which includes microscopic lead and gold particles to help abate radiation entry.

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8 hours ago, Chaldon said:

No, you can't get a dangerous dose in such a short time while flying inside the Earth's magnetosphere, even if there's a solar burst.

That's true but i was thinking more in general terms, i was just reading this and then i went to myself "wait windows don't block radiation"

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4 hours ago, pallidin said:

I think (?) that the windows are a special, very expensive composite which includes microscopic lead and gold particles to help abate radiation entry.

well i hope that's the case though there's no way it can totally block radiation even with that but i suppose that'd still lessen exposure by a fair amount

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3 hours ago, _KB_ said:

well i hope that's the case though there's no way it can totally block radiation even with that but i suppose that'd still lessen exposure by a fair amount

The space station has windows,  Orion will have windows, the crew Dragon will have windows, the CST-100 Starliner will have windows, the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo will have windows, the  space shuttle had windows, Apollo had windows... I am sure you see an emerging pattern here.

If just about every crewed spacecraft in history has had windows why do you think it is an issue on the New Shepard?

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
Typo.
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Hopefully the costs associated with space tourism will come way down, so that somebody can finally shut down the flat earth scam artists who are making money off of unfortunate folks who aren't quite smart enough to grasp the concept of a globe earth and gravity etc. I laugh when FE scammers tell people that they are stupid and gullible people and also sheep for  following scientists and their evidence, and then in the next sentence they say "follow me!" Hmmmm, am I gonna follow a guy with questionable grammar named "Ritchie from Boston" or a scientist who builds nuclear reactors, Particle accelerators and the like? The SMART money is on the smart people.

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