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This article was light on details of what this flight entails. Here is a better source [1]: > Zero-G will begin from the third minute into flight, and then at
by cletus 5y ago
This article was light on details of what this flight entails. Here is a better source [1]:
> Zero-G will begin from the third minute into flight, and then at some point between and the flight’s highest point, or apogee, at four minutes, Bezos and the others onboard will officially pass into space. Gravity will return at approximately six minutes post-launch, with the parachutes deploying at nine minutes, and finally a landing at around 10 minutes after takeoff.
So this is a 10 minute flight with 2 minutes of zero G.
It came as a surprise to me to learn that Blue Origin was founded in 2000 and SpaceX was founded in _2002_. SpaceX recently celebrated 100 successful Falcon 9 launches _in a row_. It's fair to say that Blue Origin at this point has... under-delivered.
I can't find a definitive list of commercial launches (which, presumably, would be for New Shepherd) but it seems to be a handful at best. And just how many billions has Bezos poured into this?
I do wonder if Bezos's retirement as Amazon CEO will lead him to taking a more active role in Blue Origin going forward. This flight is probably meant to bring attention to the company and maybe put the pressure on. It seems like quite a risk though for something still so relatively unproven. I mean Musk hasn't gone up on a SpaceX launch yet. To be fair, his contract with Tesla probably forbids it (as, I suspect, Bezos's with Amazon does as well).
Oh and to anyone commenting on billionaires flexing at each other and otherwise competing this is nothing new. I suggest you look back at the history of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and JP Morgan (to name a few). This is nothing new.
[1]: https://www.slashgear.com/jeff-bezos-is-going-to-space-07676525/ https://www.slashgear.com/jeff-bezos-is-going-to-space-07676...
- throwaway316943 5y agoIt’s an expensive roller coaster but it’s still promising. They’re perfecting technologies and gaining the experience they’ll need to build real orbital vehicles. They seem to be trying to do something between Virgin Galactic and SpaceX to get this company off the ground, so to speak. Probably not a bad idea since Bezos obviously doesn’t want to go all in like Musk did but also doesn’t want to bleed cash into a money pit.