Rocket Lab ships its two Mars Escapade orbiters to Cape Canaveral
Rocket Lab has now shipped the two identical Mars Escapade orbiters to Cape Canaveral for launch in late September on the very first flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
The spacecraft, known as Blue and Gold, recently completed comprehensive assembly, integration, and test at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California. Following this milestone, the Rocket Lab team conducted final closeout activities, including the installation of spacecraft solar arrays and multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets, before they were packaged and shipped to Florida for launch.
Once in orbit around Mars, the two spacecraft over eleven months will study the interaction of the Martian atmosphere and its weak magnetoshere with the solar wind and solar storms, providing two different data points for a better geographic perspective.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Rocket Lab has now shipped the two identical Mars Escapade orbiters to Cape Canaveral for launch in late September on the very first flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
The spacecraft, known as Blue and Gold, recently completed comprehensive assembly, integration, and test at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California. Following this milestone, the Rocket Lab team conducted final closeout activities, including the installation of spacecraft solar arrays and multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets, before they were packaged and shipped to Florida for launch.
Once in orbit around Mars, the two spacecraft over eleven months will study the interaction of the Martian atmosphere and its weak magnetoshere with the solar wind and solar storms, providing two different data points for a better geographic perspective.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
First Look Inside Blue Origin’s New Glenn Factory w/ Jeff Bezos!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsuqSn7ifpU
Questioner,
I watched that too. Tim Dodd did his usual ace tour guest/interviewer job, but I was surprised there was as much engineering-related talk from Bezos as there was. The man does have an engineering degree, but hasn’t previously given much evidence of being so engaged at the engineering level with Blue’s projects. All good so far as I’m concerned.
That surprised me as well.
He may have had an epiphany on his yacht.
I got the feeling Bezos was trying to show us he really understands the tech.
As I commented in a previous thread:
Bezos is enthusiastic, smart and knows his stuff.
But I get the feeling watching the interview, that Bezos is a student trying to impress the professor with his knowledge.
Bezos runs around pointing to and explaining different things his engineers did.
Musk is different. He doesn’t strive to prove he understands what is there, he doesn’t have to – he was involved in it’s creation.
When Musk walks around and points things out he seems to be constantly mulling over the designs, thinking about whether it’s being done in the optimum way.
Until they failed to produce results, Bezos was happy to let BO be run by other CEOs, it does not seem he was deeply involved in rocket development. But Bezos has had a strong interest in space since his youth so I believe BO is important to him.
But the contrast with Musk is interesting.
Note that the very first flight of New Glenn will have a customer payload. Very different than the way SpaceX does it, more akin to the NASA/Big space contractor model.
Jeff’s rocket design seems, in my impression, a bit over-engineered. For example, the mechanics of the landing legs of the first stage. However, in one aspect, Jeff is ahead of Elon. That is in taking care of his personal health. Despite being older than Musk, Jeff has a well-toned body, while Elon is clearly struggling with weight issues. Elon also doesn’t seem to eat healthily. For instance, he drinks a lot of Coke.
Not clear on one point. Are the two spacecraft going to be launched on a single rocket (New Glenn) ?
Doubting Thomas: Yes.
Dick Eagleson wrote: “The man does have an engineering degree, but hasn’t previously given much evidence of being so engaged at the engineering level with Blue’s projects.”
My recollection is that Bezos stopped running Amazon specifically to concentrate on Blue Origin and for the reason Mitch S. said: “Until they failed to produce results, Bezos was happy to let BO be run by other CEOs …“