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Blue Origin first human flight
- madjam002 5y agoIncredible, congrats to the crew and team who have worked on this!
- ethbr0 5y agoLink to the direct feed: https://youtu.be/watch?v=tMHhXzpwupU https://youtu.be/watch?v=tMHhXzpwupU (Posted by many others, but this is what made the front page) Update 1: Successful booster touchdown (admittedly, they probably had a lot larger fuel budget than orbital launches) Update 2: Successful touchdown of capsule Congrats to Blue Origin for success in tossing people through space!
- jcun4128 5y agoNot directly relevant: what's annoying are the fake live streams. Then there are blatant crypto scams on top lol ugh.
- dole 5y agoYoutube's homepage reminds me of the television broadcasts in Idiocracy. Just another fulfilled prophecy.
- jcun4128 5y agoYou know what's annoying is they barely show you content that you subscribe to. I find the "recently uploaded" filter is more helpful in terms of finding something interesting to watch.
- rtkwe 5y agoThat's not what they want the front page to be, it's the stuff you might like page. They have an actual page for your subscriptions if that's what you want to see.. I was always confuse in the beginning about all the creators and viewers saying they weren't seeing uploads till I realized people just weren't using the subscription tab.
- jcun4128 5y agoOh... TIL wow man I've been on YT for years
- rtkwe 5y agoSometimes it feels like there may have been something missing from the Subscriptions page too but I'm never sure if I just didn't see it because I'm subscribed a lot of places, but during the height of videos about "YouTube hiding my videos from you my subscribers" I wasn't missing any (that I noticed at least I suppose).
- paganel 5y agoI would have expected an ambulance to be at the landing/crash site just in case, for the moment I can only see pickup trucks.
- JshWright 5y agoThere are certainly rescue vehicles staged nearby. The potential landing area is actually pretty large (since it's coming down under parachutes and will be pushed by the wind), so it wouldn't be possible to preposition them exactly where the capsule is going to land. The rescue vehicles would have been rolled if they were needed.
- JshWright 5y ago> (admittedly, they probably had a lot larger fuel budget than orbital launches) That booster isn't capable of orbital launches.
- ethbr0 5y agoI meant it's a helluva lot easier to have plenty of landing fuel when you're tossing a capsule up, vs trying to insert an actual payload into orbit.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- avalanche123 5y agoWhat a mind blowing achievement. Wow!
- marshallbananas 5y agoThis felt so underwhelming. I don't know if it's because I've seen SpaceX doing much more complicated missions or it's just not that big of a deal. They got about two minutes of zero G and came down immediately. You can experience that for much longer with a regular plane, for much less money. It really shouldn't count as space travel unless they go into orbit around Earth.
- jacquesm 5y agoYes, but 'Blue Origin successfully avoids achieving orbit' sounds so much less like an achievement than 'first human flight'.
- notjustanymike 5y agoHe went up and then down again.
- jstsch 5y agoAgreed. This really felt like an amusement park ride for rich people. Like a throw towards the edge of orbit. I'm sure there is some innovation coming out of this, but compared to the insane progress of SpaceX it's super underwhelming.
- iso1631 5y ago> Like a throw towards the edge of orbit. It's nowhere near orbit. Orbit is about 10km of delta-v, then there's the reentry problem. Reaching the Karman line is about 2km of delta-v.
- ethbr0 5y agoWalk before you run. I very much doubt Blue Origin intends to freeze rocket development after this launch. Blue Origin now has a successful manned flight under their belt, and a revenue stream. While it might surprise some here, Amazon started by selling just books... It feels like similar attitude comments on that would have been "They'll never compete with Walmart. Real retail stores sell all kinds of things."
- docdeek 5y agoIncredible achievement. I had to catch myself as, at first, I was thinking “10 minutes? That’s it? And in space for a lot less than that?”. Quickly reminded myself that in the history of the world hardly anyone has gone where they have gone - 10 minutes isn’t much, but if I could I would.
- tokai 5y ago>Incredible achievement Is it though? I don't see how.
- docdeek 5y agoWhen I was growing up the only people who had a chance to go where these four people went were trained for years by a nation-state. It was incredibly dangerous and it was only those who the government approved who might make the trip. I just saw four pretty regular people - including one I believe subbed in at the last minute - take a trip and it cost a fraction of what it used to. The high price tag means it’s still nowhere near accessible to most people as flying in a plane or taking a train, but it’s a lot more accessible than it was when I was a kid, and by the time my kids are adults it is likely to be more than just a pipe dream. I still remember what it was like to catch a plane for the first time and how I would count the number of trips I would take on a plane because it was just so outside my normal experience. Maybe one of my kids will have a chance to feel the same way about flying to space.
- tokai 5y agoBut there has been space tourism since the 00's. For the right amount of money anyone could ride a Soyuz rocket.
- renewiltord 5y agoMade by a Space Race government. Now it’s in the reach of individuals. I’m a space universalist. I’m cheering for all the teams here.
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- markx2 5y agoThe coverage was excellent. So many ways that this could have been an ego / company boosting event and it was not. Branson, take note.
- jacquesm 5y agoYou mean like they used 'Blue Origin' in tiny letters next to huge letters spelling out 'First Human Flight'? Always check the fine print.
- admissionsguy 5y agoMixed feelings. I suppose it's important to have competition/alternatives to SpaceX, but does it have to be done in such a sluggish manner by one the most unlikable people in the world?
- nrmitchi 5y ago> such a sluggish manner Can you elaborate? I'm not sure "sluggish" is an adverb I would use to describe space launches.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- FredFS456 5y agoBlue Origin is funded by Bezos with much more resources/year than SpaceX, yet has achieved far less over a longer time since founding. "Sluggish" is the adverb I would use to describe its engineering progress.
- jbverschoor 5y agoAnd purely for egotistical reasons...
- fighterpilot 5y agoWhat a silly statement. No, you don't have the ability to read Bezos' mind from your armchair. My 2c - it's great that billionaires are starting important businesses that are highly capital intensive, since those types of businesses are more inaccessible to newer entrepreneurs.
- basisword 5y agoI hate to break it to you but Musk is just as unlikeable. Why does it matter who does it though? It’s a great achievement and could lead to great things. I’d much rather people like Bezos were spending money on this than mansions, supercars, and other crap that doesn’t benefit anyone.
- sandworm101 5y agoThe latest of the rich man roller coasters. Biggest windows in space... Cool. I cannot wait to see the first Champaign cork opened in zero gravity. At least spaceX's efforts have some none-entertainment uses. This rocket is nothing more than a pleasure craft.
- holoduke 5y agoWaiting for youporn to have their first facial in space.
- meepmorp 5y agoYou're getting downvotes, but we're going to real porn shot in space within the next decade. Personally, I'm hoping to see some really shameless public handwringing and outrage by politicians and religious leaders.
- Me1000 5y agoBlue Origin has already flown New Shepard with various science experiments onboard. They've flown it with new guidance systems which they were testing for their moon landing bid which they submitted with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper. New Shepard can kind of be thought of as a prototype of the second stage to their new (bigger) rocket, New Glenn. Blue Origin is a serious company and New Shepard is greatly overly engineered for joyrides. That's because the goal of Blue Origin and New Shepard is bigger than just space tourism.
- ninjamayo 5y agoGongrats to Blue Origin, this was great but when compared to SpaceX its like seeing a bicycle ride compared to a Model S Plaid track on Nuremberg.
- _joel 5y agoIt's great to have more companies operating in space but, as noted by others, it felt fairly routine given what SpaceX have been achieving (BN3 static fire yesterday and proper orbital flight in a few weeks)
- jbverschoor 5y agoI didn't see Bezos sitting inside, except after the landing.
- runawaybottle 5y agoI’m more impressed that Bezos took the ideas that worked from Spacex and successfully copied it.
- ProAm 5y agoYou mean tax payer funding?
- JshWright 5y agoBlue Origin actually predates SpaceX. They have been working in parallel on related ideas, so I don't think it's fair to say they "copied" SpaceX. SpaceX is definitely a lot further down the road, and what Blue Origin is doing currently is much easier. The energies involved in suborbital flights are much lower, and the fact that the rocket has a thrust-to-weight ratio low enough that it can hover makes the landing process a lot simpler.
- eco 5y agoI still can't wrap my head around how little Blue Origin has accomplished in 21 years despite having an earlier start than SpaceX and with Bezos injecting a billion or so into it every year. SpaceX launches people and cargo to the ISS, just completed the first shell of a nearly worldwide satellite internet network using reused boosters many of which approaching 10 flights, and is a few months out from test launching a fully reusable rocket with twice the thrust of the Saturn V using a novel-full flow staged combustion rocket engine of their own design. And now Blue Origin is seemingly dragging down ULA with them because of the constantly delays of the BE-4 engine ULA selected for Vulcan. I just don't understand how Bezos can find this progress acceptable. I want Blue Origin to succeed. Having SpaceX as the only US launch provider is not the future we want.
- runawaybottle 5y agoBezos doesn’t know the science as well as Elon. Not to say Elon is a rocket scientist, but knows enough to impact something (direction, velocity). Bezos is showing where he does know things. He knows what works (spacex design and vertical landing), so copy that. Amazon didn’t invent books, they just sold it cheaply and on the internet. It’s interesting, I think Musk and Bezos would make a good team, especially on something like Tesla.
- _fat_santa 5y agoSeems that between Musk, Bezos and Branson, we have in essence restarted a space race but this time it's billionaires in the private sector versus governments. Some will surely say that they have better things to spend their money on (Bezos for sure) but I gave to say it's still mindblowing. I would imagine if you're one of those guys, you've basically have enough money to solve any problem, so these guys it seems are chasing harder and harder problems, space exploration seems to be top of mind among these problems.
- jacquesm 5y agoI don't see a race. I see one company that does space travel and two dilettantes, who may or may not one day actually do something useful.
- api 5y agoBlue Origin is the closest to actually developing useful orbital and beyond-orbital capabilities. They have their own new engine design that's not quite as impressive as Raptor but not bad and their own super-heavy lift booster in development. The thing you just saw fly is similar to "Starhopper." Virgin Galactic is an expensive carnival ride and has nothing close to orbital capability. For those that don't know: getting to orbit (let alone beyond) requires way more delta-V (energy) than getting past the Karman line. The German V-2 is (I think) the first vehicle to do that, but it was nowhere even near orbit capable. The first photo from space was done by the USA with a captured and modified V-2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_No._13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_No._13
- weavie 5y agoAre Amazon employees allowed toilet breaks yet?
- sschueller 5y agoWhat I found interesting is that the vehicle that drove them to the launchpad was a Rivian SUV. The direct competitor to the Tesla Model X.
- sandworm101 5y agoYup. There are layers upon layers of messaging here. This is a handful of very rich people throwing shade at each other. In the past they used paintings and architecture to send coded insults. Now they use thier toy rockets.
- jansan 5y agoThey should have driven there with four Rimac Nevera, one car per astronaut. Now THAT would have sent a message.
- machtesh 5y agoAmazon/Jeff Bezos are investors in Rivian. They're developing electric delivery vehicles for Amazon.
- nickik 5y agoNASA uses Model X to transport astronauts to the launch tower. And Amazon invested in Rivian so Bezos wants to feature that.
- arriu 5y agoComments in this thread complaining that the rich get to do whatever they want are forgetting that the wright brothers (and others) enabled flight for all of us even though most people during that time could only dream about it. It might not happen for you and I, but let's think about the bigger picture.
- FredFS456 5y agoWright brothers were certainly not dirt poor, but they weren't barons either. They were only able to build their planes because of their experience building other mechanical things.
- arriu 5y agoLet me clarify, my point is neither about their wealth or expertise. I'm simply pointing out that this could be a similar point in time for future commercial travel; focusing on their wealth is beside the point. Or it could fizzle out...
- rtkwe 5y agoIDK Virgin Galactic seemed to be virtually dead for a decade or so until there was a chance to one up Bezos I wouldn't be surprised to see these continue to barely operate after this big push.
- mulmen 5y agoSo it is your belief that Virgin Galactic did nothing for a decade and then made a working spacecraft in the course of a few months but you don’t find this amazing?
- rtkwe 5y agoThey didn't, I know they weren't actually doing nothing that whole time but it's been almost 3 years since SpaceShipTwo's first 'space'flight and there was very little happening. SS2 first flew way back in 2010, it's all just moving very slowly until there's a chance for a PR opportunity and I'm not so convinced it won't immediately go back to doing 1-2 test flights a year for a while again after this.
- mns 5y agoCan't wait for short haul flights to be banned and to travel 14 hours in a train so we reduce carbon emissions. But I'm happy that rich guys can have fun and advance "space exploration".
- acover 5y agoSpaceX's starship uses methane which can be synthesized from CO2 and water - allowing it to be carbon neutral for a cost.
- JshWright 5y agoIt will be a while before synthesizing CH4 is "carbon neutral". Sure, you could set up a massive solar farm and pump it out, but that solar farm would be way more effective offsetting other power production methods on the grid at large.
- Me1000 5y agoNew Shepard burns liquid hydrogen and oxygen, the byproduct of which is just water vapor.
- la6471 5y agoMemo to Bezos/Brandon/Musk: Great , but now can you guys do something about reducing human suffering due to climate change? Like potentially developing technologies for sucking off CO2 and other harmful gases off our atmosphere? Or how about cancer cure or anti aging or something that helps humanity?
- tsuraan 5y agoMaybe a $100MM X-Prize for carbon removal? https://www.xprize.org/prizes/elonmusk https://www.xprize.org/prizes/elonmusk
- whitepaint 5y agoWhy don't you work on these as well?
- thehappypm 5y agoI wouldn't lump Musk in here. Musk is divisive as hell but his companies are hardly wasteful. Tesla is leading the car industry towards an oil-free future and also has a healthy solar panel division. SpaceX is opening up space exploration. Even things like the Boring Company and Hyperloop are aiming to make human life better.
- f00zz 5y agohttps://thesolutionsproject.org/bezos-earth-fund/ https://thesolutionsproject.org/bezos-earth-fund/
- flareback 5y agoAm I the only one annoyed that it's spelled "Shepard"
- sega_sai 5y agoObviously everybody (Branson/Bezos) is entitled to spend their cash in whatever way they want. But, if they are making a spectacle of it, publicise it and promote it like some big achievement, then those people should be prepared to take some criticism. And in my opinion, I see the last two launches as indeed amusement rides for billionaires and a strong argument for better taxation policies. In contrary, what Musk does with SpaceX ( and I'm not a fan of Musk as a person), can be classified as technological development as he actually sends satellites, deliveries to ISS.
- adventured 5y ago> And in my opinion, I see the last two launches as indeed amusement rides for billionaires and a strong argument for better taxation policies. How would different taxation policies prevent Bezos from spending a very modest share of his wealth on what he wants to do? He has $204 billion. What he has done with Blue Origin can be replicated for 1-3% of that. Is the plan to take 99% of the Bezos fortune through government confiscation and forced sales of Amazon stock? I ask because only a small number of nations have ever behaved with that level of brutality toward private wealth, all were - without exception - totalitarian genocide machines with zero human rights. How about we not keep repeating the mistakes of the past. Even Scandinavia - the region that arguably created the highest standard of living in world history - would never dare to behave that way toward private wealth (Scandinavia is overflowing with billionaires and adores private wealth). Nor would Germany or France. What's the premise then, no fun if you're rich? Which board of comrades is going to be responsible for dictating who gets to do what? Are we abolishing the bourgeois, 20th century style? I think I've read this story before. There's only one way to prevent someone like Bezos from doing Blue Origin, only one approach politically that can be utilized to accomplish that (skeptics will argue there are utopian approaches to mass property confiscation that are humane; there aren't, once you uncork that genie, extreme violence and genocide always follow). So if you've got $N wealth, you're not allowed to own a boat. If you've got over $1 million you're not allowed to fly in a plane for fun or convenience, nor may you experiment with creating new types of planes. Perhaps if you've got over $250,000 you may not experiment with new types of technology period. That includes software and hardware. No fun for you. I say so. I have decided to draw the line there and my Socialist board of comrades will enforce it. I have no interest in only restricting the fun Bezos is allowed to have, it should be taken to its logical conclusion, so everybody gets to enjoy how the system will really work in the end.
- trey-jones 5y agoI'm not interested in the semantics of outer space or the competition to see who can meet the terms of one of those arbitrary definitions first. More than one corporate/government entity making progress in rocketry and space-faring technology is a good thing for humanity. I'm thinking that there should be plenty of incentive here for billionaires: it's conceivable that whoever gets there (where? I don't know) first will be running the show in 50 or 100 or 500 years. There are worse bets for establishing your legacy.
- nodesocket 5y agoAnd seems the HN people’s socialist party downvoted and flagged this story off the front page.
- rvz 5y agoUnsurprisingly. They only want to see SpaceX and ONLY SpaceX blasting Dogecoin onto the moon next year. That's why and without any other competitor existing. Also I assume you watched Blue Origin's flight today. Given that it was not a SpaceX flight, perhaps you found this one beyond woeful regardless of engineering effort and what usually happens in tech news or HN? [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27801640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27801640
- Tepix 5y agoThese suborbitals flights to space require 20% of the velocity and 2-3% of the energy of an orbital flight.
- underseacables 5y agoHow’s the petition coming along for Bezos to not return to earth?
- soheil 5y agoDoesn't T-10 usually indicate seconds not minutes?
- mendigou 5y agoI found it annoying, even a bit insulting, that they kept referring to the people in the capsule as "astronauts". I could understand if they did it for Wally Funk, as she actually did the training back in the day, but the rest? When rich people were allowed in the ISS they were called "tourists", which is befitting.
- cptskippy 5y agoLooking up the definition of astronaut, I'm inclined to agree with you. They weren't crew, the flight was autonomous. It's unclear what if anything they could do should there have been a problem.
- AlexanderTheGr8 5y ago"An astronaut (from the Greek "astron" (ἄστρον), meaning "star", and "nautes" (ναύτης), meaning "sailor") is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft." They were trained (not as well trained as NASA astronauts, but still trained well enough for such a short mission) They were equipped with whatever equipments they needed for this flight. They were deployed by a human spaceflight program. So by definition, shouldn't they classify as "astronauts"?
- finnh 5y agoWhat about the "serve as commander or crew member" part?
- mygoodaccount 5y agoI feel the same way when software developers call themselves engineers.
- comeonseriously 5y agoWhat if we have engineering degrees? That change anything? Edit: That being said, depending on who I am talking to it ranges from "I do computers" to "I am a computer programmer", and very rarely use "engineer" unless I am referring to my actual degree (BSCpE).
- guerrilla 5y agoIf you had a biology degree and were a mailman, would you call your profession 'biologist'? No. That's absurd, as is calling people who write JavaScript, most of whom don't even have computer science degrees, engineers. It's nothing but grandiosity and ignorance of what engineering is.
- Cu3PO42 5y agoIn Germany, and presumably many other countries, "engineer" is a job title that requires a certain degree. As in, you need to have such and such degree if you want to advertise yourself as an engineer. The B.Sc. and M.Sc. in computer science are actually amongst those degrees that allow you to call yourself an engineer. If I remember correctly, my diploma specifically says "This diploma permits you to use the job title 'engineer'." (loosely translated). Of course, the legal definitions are unrelated to whether or not it's sensible to use that title. Honestly, I think it depends on the kind of programming you're doing. If you're designing new systems, for example, it seems to fit.
- jcun4128 5y agoYeah that one I struggle with too. I don't have a degree/can't call myself an engineer but my contract/pay is for Sr. SWE which I also don't consider myself a Sr. so idk... Generally go with SWD. Granted in my job it's so strict/refined... tech designs, unit/visual regression testing/QA/TA that sort of thing... it's not like I can just write code on the fly/release it out there without it going through the tests and several people. I'm definitely not the caliber of a developer that thinks of tasks in Log N or something. Least path algos and what not I'm a typical dev and I'm alright with that ultimately I am a tinkerer and end goal is FIRE.
- Axsuul 5y agoReally clean launch! I think this was the first time a reusable rocket was landed with humans onboard? It must’ve fell 100k feet at the end in less than a minute which must’ve been nuts.
- someperson 5y agoNo, Dragon and the Falcon 9 launch crew to the ISS and both are "land" (well, splashdown for Dragon). Though as far as I know, the Crew Dragon vehicle has been new every launch, with re-used Dragons being used for future missions. I don't know if this was the first flight of that particular New Shepard Crew Capsule though.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- peshooo 5y agoThe capsule with the humans separated from the rocket a little bit before they hit the 100km attitude mark. Then it landed with parachutes.
- maxnoe 5y agoThe capsule and booster seperated and the capsule landed with parachutes
- rtkwe 5y agoNo it's basically the same as the SpaceX CrewDragon flights where the capsule parachutes down and the booster lands separately except the capsule doesn't go to orbit.
- DaniloDias 5y agoOne way I feel different from most people posting here: A man spends his life building a company successful enough to have the financial tools necessary to explore space flight. He won’t get that time back. The money that corresponds to that time is his to spend. A bunch of boring and predictable meat bags on the Internet are so narcissistic that they blandly claim to know better how he should spend that money. You are no different than the Catholic Church.
- antihero 5y agoPerhaps soon the richest capitalist on the planet will catch up with 1960s communists :)
- xor99 5y agoDid I miss it or was there no in capsule cameras for this one? I thought the Branson space flight had a little more drama to it because of the scenes from the cockpit and passenger area.
- rtkwe 5y agoI don't think they showed any. There's a chance it just doesn't have the extra mass available for a strong HD downlink. The Virgin Galactic flight had them but the feed was lost so it was all recorded and shown later. I imagine there was some camera rolling in there.
- ok2938 5y agoWhitey on the moon [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otwkXZ0SmTs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otwkXZ0SmTs
- tawan 5y agoLot of people in this thread are arguing that wealthy people can spend money on what ever they want. I think it’s important to distinguish whether the money they spend on personal joy rides has been taxed as private income or written off as business expense. Does anyone have information on whether Bezos‘ investments into Blue Origin has been taxed previously as personal income when he presumably liquidated Amazon stock?
- rcMgD2BwE72F 5y ago>I think it’s important to distinguish whether the money they spend on personal joy rides has been taxed as private income or written off as business expense. So if the mafia did it, it'd be fine because government didn't pay for it? I'm not saying that Bezos is a mafioso, but this is a false dichotomy. There are also good reasons to think that all "legal" businesses aren't legit and with litttle political oversight, maybe the profit of giant companies like Amazon shouldn't be deemed 100% deserved. This comment is related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27893518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27893518
- tawan 5y agoI think you misinterpreted my comment (probably my bad, Im not an English native). What I meant is: It is important to make sure that the profits of stocks sold need to be taxed properly, and only the after tax amount that’s left over can be spend on, some may say frivolous, space adventures. Especially when it is often reported that billionaires dont pay hardly any taxes, since their wealth grew „only in equity“. But then suddenly they find themselves on a pretty expensive space vacation.
- HarHarVeryFunny 5y agoI'd like to have gone for the ride, but it was rather underwhelming, and slightly absurd, from the spectator POV. Four dingbats going for a 10min joyride in a mobile lounge strapped onto a dick-shaped rocket. Still, I'm all for billionaires pursuing daft dreams like this rather than just buying big yachts like Larry Ellison, or not much of anything like Bill Gates. At least Bezos is putting on a mildly entertaining show for us to watch.
- mrlinx 5y ago> not much of anything like Bill Gates you kidding?
- HarHarVeryFunny 5y agoI meant non-philanthropic stuff. What billionaires choose to splurge their money on.
- davidw 5y agoAs the owner of several western hats, I'm curious about Jeff Bezos' hat. What's the story behind it? It does not fit him well. He obviously has the money to have whatever kind of crafted, perfectly styled hat he wants. Maybe something from his family?
- rtkwe 5y agoIirc this is in Texas so local affectation probably?
- davidw 5y agoHe's spent time on ranches, so probably knows how they're supposed to fit; this one's practically resting on his ears. I'm curious if it's a hat that means something to him for some reason.
- rtkwe 5y agoThat sounds basically like what I'm saying: He owns a ranch and occasionally spends time there because part of the reason the rich often have these ranch properties is to cosplay part of the independent west/cowboy dream. He probably rarely wears one and basically only does so when he's on this ranch as part of the aesthetic.
- cjlars 5y agoHaving spent time supporting these sorts of live / PR events, there's a non-zero chance that this was brought in last minute by an underling.
- okareaman 5y agoI think the end game for Bezos and Branson is space hotels, which benefits no one except themselves and their investors.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y agoI'll tell ya...whenever I look at that spaceship... Just to make it official, they should have two circular blast deflectors, on opposite sides of the gantry.
- gitpusher 5y agoBezos in that spacesuit and cowboy hat ...completely made my morning LOL.
- vmception 5y agoI get a laugh imagining that Bezos took that boy/bidder up as insurance he would be allowed back onto the planet
- sjg007 5y agoI was amazed at how routine it felt. Definitely a rich person’s rollercoaster. I could see hotels in space as a thing.
- adminscoffee 5y agomy gf has given me more space than this and she's pretty clingy. jk
- adammunich 5y agohttps://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gilscottheron/whiteyonthemoon.html https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gilscottheron/whiteyonthemoo...
- astatine 5y agoDid anyone get the feeling that this was a "MVP" style launch? It looked more engineering oriented with its very firmly functional-only everything. Or maybe, Virgin Galactic pushed so far towards the other end that this pales in comparison.
- simmytot 5y agoBlue Origin looked like "dildos into space"; Virgin Galactic like "jackasses into space". I look forward to marketing a dildo with the name "Blue Origin", one that can "launch you into space" (albeit figuratively only) better. And how else could you characterise a camera focusing on Branson's grin for 5 minutes - isn't there a more photogenic angle for the spacecraft's contents?
- ruined 5y agodude goes to space but can't show me a webpage without executing js
- crb 5y agoBoth Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin offer you ~4 minutes of weightlessness. Can this sub-orbital model scale in such a way to have, say, 60 minutes of weightlessness? Or is the "straight up, straight down" model such that sub-orbital flight has a cap at 4?
- codezero 5y agolow-earth orbit is around 90 minutes per orbit, so 60 minutes may be possible but I think it would require odd re-entry or a distant recovery that wouldn't be economical, probably at that length they'd just go into orbit.
- teraflop 5y agoA "suborbital" trajectory is just an orbit that intersects Earth's surface, and in theory you can make it whatever size and duration you want. I suppose the limit would be when your apogee becomes high enough to be near or beyond Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, which would happen for orbital periods on the order of months. Practically speaking, if you have enough thrust and delta-v to achieve a suborbital flight of more than a few tens of minutes, you also have the ability to reach orbit, so why bother?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- galgot 5y agoObscene in every sense of the word.
- trhway 5y agoa privately developed powerful reliable human rated rocket engine and a vertical booster landing - that were big deal just 10 years ago. Today - nah. That's called real progress, and i think we should be happy that it is happening. Private people, even if billionaires for now, starting to pop into space as a routine occurrence looks to me like very early days of aviation, and we all know the explosive development after that.
- mesozoic 5y agoWhat was Jeff Bezos' carbon footprint today?
- gbronner 5y agoHow long before people record it and post it on social media? Cool experience for the first few people, but once everyone has been there, it is just a vomit comet to nowhere for the price of a car -- sort of like the world's most uncomfortable cruise ship. As an FYI: the Concorde wasn't actually all that nice inside -- food was excellent, but unless you really needed the extra 3-4 hours, first class conventional was a much nicer trip.
- sys_64738 5y agoThe video of them weightless showed them all crammed into a very small space. Surprised somebody never got a foot in the head from another. Feels like a lawsuit is waiting so who would have jurisdiction here?