Category Archives: Space industry and microgravity R&D

Video: Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket

Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, released a video animation this week showing the New Glenn rocket, which they will start building next year at a factory currently in construction at Cape Canaveral. First flights are expected in 2020:

The first stage of the New Glenn will land on a ship platform and be reused up to 100 times.

The company also announced contracts with Eutelsat and OneWeb for satellites launches.

Jeff Bezos has been a space enthusiasts since he was a kid and is determined to see large scale human settlement of space.

 

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Video: Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket demonstrates safe in-flight abort

Blue Origin, the space company owned by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, flew their New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket yesterday. The goal was to test the abort system for the crew capsule. At about 45 seconds after liftoff, the crew capsule separated and flew off from the booster. It was expected that the booster would be damaged and blown off course by the rocket plume of the crew capsule but in fact it continued to fly normally and came back down for a safe landing.

New Shepard In-flight Escape Test

On October 5, 2016, New Shepard performed an in-flight test of the capsule’s full-envelope escape system, designed to quickly propel the crew capsule to safety if a problem is detected with the booster. At T+0:45 and 16,053 feet (4,893 meters), the capsule separated and the escape motor fired, pushing the capsule safely away from the booster. Reaching an apogee of 23,269 feet (7,092 meters), the capsule then descended under parachutes to a gentle landing on the desert floor. After the capsule escape, the booster continued its ascent, reaching an apogee of 307,458 feet (93,713 meters). At T+7:29, the booster executed a controlled, vertical landing back at the West Texas Launch Site, completing its fifth and final mission.

[ Update: Here is a slow motion view of the separation of the crew capsule

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This was the fifth flight of the booster and crew capsule, both of which will now go to a museum. Test flights will continue with new improved boosters and crew capsules as they move towards carrying people for the first time next year. Commercial flights with paying customers should start in 2018. Already, the vehicle has been carrying science experiments and engineering R&D payloads commercially.

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Here is the complete webcast with the liftoff starting at  1:05:52. It shows more of the flight of the booster and crew capsule than the above video:

 

Videos: SpaceX cargo Dragon returns from the ISS

Here is a video of the SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft leaving theInt. Space Station on Wednesday. The Dragon was launched to the ISS back on April 8th (see videos here).

Later in the day the Dragon parachuted safely into the Pacific off the coast of Southern California. Lots of science samples and instruments were returned: Critical NASA Science Returns to Earth aboard SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft – NASA

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Today the recovery vessel with the Dragon reached the port of Los Angeles.