A look at Blue Origin’s upcoming plans
Two stories today give us a peek at Blue Origin’s future plans.
- Blue Origin working towards making the Cape its Orbital Launch Site
- Sneak Peek at New Shepard Crew Capsule
The first outlines how the company plans to launch its orbital rocket, New Glenn, from Florida. The second provides a photo tour of the company’s suborbital New Shepard capsule, as designed for tourist flights.
I must mention that I have been disappointed at the lack of test flights for New Shepard in recent months. Their last flight was in October, almost six months ago, when their test of the capsule’s launch abort system was supposedly a success. No tests since, even though they have said they planned the first manned test flights this year. I am beginning to wonder if they have decided to shift resources to the orbital system and thus slow the suborbital program down.
Readers!
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Two stories today give us a peek at Blue Origin’s future plans.
- Blue Origin working towards making the Cape its Orbital Launch Site
- Sneak Peek at New Shepard Crew Capsule
The first outlines how the company plans to launch its orbital rocket, New Glenn, from Florida. The second provides a photo tour of the company’s suborbital New Shepard capsule, as designed for tourist flights.
I must mention that I have been disappointed at the lack of test flights for New Shepard in recent months. Their last flight was in October, almost six months ago, when their test of the capsule’s launch abort system was supposedly a success. No tests since, even though they have said they planned the first manned test flights this year. I am beginning to wonder if they have decided to shift resources to the orbital system and thus slow the suborbital program down.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
As to shifting resources, another possibility has opened as well. That is, the reworking of New Shepard as a lunar lander, as per the plan Bezos recently spoke about for Trump’s lunar 2020 desires. Either or both orbital and lunar foci are now possible, or they could launch a crew next month on New Shepard. Yes, this lack of ramping up of activity is a bit disappointing in the short-term. Longer term, it *might* be a better way to go, if the commitment of resources is stable over the next 4+ years.
Once you have some capable tech like BE-3 and BE-4, the temptation to do everything right now becomes stronger. Bezos certainly has the financial resources, though it is very possible to strain his technical resources in the short-term. Observing the path among all these possibilities that BO takes will tell us something about its future.
I never liked their suborbital tourist idea, a couple of minutes in weightlessness. A rocket driven roller coaster on a hydrogen rocket. Maybe it was seriously intended? Or rather, maybe it (the rocket) was seriously intended.
LocalFluff wrote: “I never liked their suborbital tourist idea, … Maybe it was seriously intended?”
Virgin Galactic demonstrated that there is a market for suborbital tourism; hundreds of people want to have the experience. Blue Origin and XCOR were also approached by researchers who want to do experiments on sounding rockets (suborbital rockets), even experiments that were best performed while accompanied by the researchers, and these rockets would also enable short-term zero-g experiments that require human test subjects.
Income from these launches can also help to finance the next generation of rocket, the New Glenn, while providing the company with valuable operational experience and knowledge.
Starting small and working up to big is used across most or all industries as a tried and true method of generating current revenue yet being able to finance new development, all while learning the ropes of the enterprise. In this case, I mean “small” to be suborbital manned space. By starting large, by which I mean orbital, a company could go out of business before it gets its first payload. SpaceX came close to having this happen to them for unmanned payloads.
Please notice that the only companies working on manned orbital spacecraft are doing so on government contracts with milestone payments. Blue Origin does not have the luxury of milestone payments during its development phase, so maybe we can consider space tourism to be the equivalent of milestone payments.
“Alexa, take me to outer space.”
“OK. I’ll put that on your Amazon Prime account. Have a nice flight.”