Briefs: Blue Orgin expt black out; Dark blue power; Isle of Man in space

What's with the crazy paranoia at Blue Origin? You'd think they're developing nuclear warheads and not mere suborbital vehicles with their insane fear of being seen. One can still give insight into an operation without spilling all of their trade secrets or technological progress. From a marketing perspective, you'd think they'd want to generate some hype, not remain elusive and unknown.

Posted by anon at 11/25/09 21:40:35

Maybe the speculation that comes with secrecy *is* their idea of hype.

Especially in a field like this where, no matter how much we try to restrain ourselves and apply the 'Missouri Test' to projects, we still can't help hoping that they're hiding something that has (or will have) extremely cool performance...

Posted by Frank Glover at 11/26/09 02:52:50

In my speculative and cynical opinion, Blue Origin have to be secretive because we all know that NASA *loves* to bash reusable launch vehicles.

Posted by Prospace Environmentalist at 11/26/09 05:40:50

I think it is admirable that Blue Origin is generally keeping their activities under wraps. It is sort of the antithesis of vaporware projects that are all hype and no substance.

In the case of Blue Origin, it is all substance and no hype. That is precisely what I find most refreshing about their approach. If/when they actually have a real product they can offer, they will be ready to show it off to the world and be able to take orders/customers on day one of its release.

It also keeps armchair critics in their place (like the NASA bureaucrats who don't want folks crowding on their turf) as there is nothing to criticize until it is actually working. Considering all of the critics of SpaceX and Armadillo, it may even be a good method to silence their critics by simply being silent themselves. It isn't as if Blue Origin needs an injection of investment capital generated by the hype.

Posted by Robert Horning at 11/26/09 10:33:18

I am always donating money to Blue Orgin.

And I do it thru Transterrestrial when I remember Rand's link!

Mr. Bezos sends me nice stuff for my donations like Compact Disks and other cool stuff.

Makes NPR look like a bunch of wimps!

Posted by Mike Puckett at 11/26/09 11:35:21

I think they want to prevent negative press. An accident or a crashed landing of a prototype does happen every now and then during rocket vehicle development. Sometimes accidents can even be deadly as could be seen with the accident at Scaled.
Such accidents make bad press. Bad press, or images of crashing VTOL- vehicles are not helpful when you are trying to sell seats on a RLV.
Their secrecy gives them full control over their press. Only successes are released (and then only those that look cool) and the rest is kept under wraps. It is a viable approach, nothing wrong with that.
Of course deep down I am hoping that they will come up with something absolutely mindblowingly cool and surprise as all ;)

Posted by Elmar_M at 11/28/09 19:09:35

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