Blue Origin rethinking plans for landing its first stage?
Capitalism in space: Though the company has said little, according to this local Florida newspaper Blue Origin is rethinking its plans to use the cargo ship Jacklyn as a platform for landing its New Glenn first stages in the ocean.
The 600-foot former cargo ship has been docked at the Port of Pensacola since 2018 and undergoing a retrofit by the Pensacola company Offshore Inland to enable the ship to serve as a landing platform for the first stage of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
When contacted by the News Journal to ask if the retrofit project had been canceled, a Blue Origin spokesperson responded that no final decision had been made yet.
The company is looking at “different options” for recovery vessels that give the best chance for mission success while also being safe and cost-effective, the spokesperson said.
This could be good news or bad news. Either it means Blue Origin is now getting close to finally launching New Glenn, which is three years behind schedule, or it has suddenly realized that using this cargo ship never made sense, and it is scrambling to find a solution at this late date.
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Capitalism in space: Though the company has said little, according to this local Florida newspaper Blue Origin is rethinking its plans to use the cargo ship Jacklyn as a platform for landing its New Glenn first stages in the ocean.
The 600-foot former cargo ship has been docked at the Port of Pensacola since 2018 and undergoing a retrofit by the Pensacola company Offshore Inland to enable the ship to serve as a landing platform for the first stage of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
When contacted by the News Journal to ask if the retrofit project had been canceled, a Blue Origin spokesperson responded that no final decision had been made yet.
The company is looking at “different options” for recovery vessels that give the best chance for mission success while also being safe and cost-effective, the spokesperson said.
This could be good news or bad news. Either it means Blue Origin is now getting close to finally launching New Glenn, which is three years behind schedule, or it has suddenly realized that using this cargo ship never made sense, and it is scrambling to find a solution at this late date.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Maybe he thinks its cheaper to chunk cores than employ sailors?
What’s the use of getting rid of ‘standing armies’ if all you do is replace them with standing navies?
Enter autophage LVs. And guns.
The best rocket is no rocket?
They may be considering the “SMART’ system, where the engine module comes back down by chutes, and the chuck the tanks into the briny blue.
They may not have also considered the liability of having something come down ballistic into the same area as a manned vessel. Engines fail that thing could do enough damage to sink her. Loss of vessel and crew. Lot of lawsuits.
Lets say the evacuate the crew during recover ops. Engines fail, expensive vessel lost. How long would that shut down operations? With the drone ship barges, they are smaller and easier to replace. They would need a big drone ship.
Is the vessel registered in the US? I am also assuming that it must me registered in the US (Jones Act) because some of the tech faces export restrictions. That also raises cost.
A smart business person might be looking at copying the landing technique that Starship is going to use.