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.
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 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
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.
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 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
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.