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Blue Origin thread.


Vanamonde

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Just now, sevenperforce said:

The lack of in-space imagery and in-capsule imagery was disappointing.

 

What's the point of reaching the karman line if you can't show a cool pic of how astonishingly different it is from 86 km up?

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Best response I have heard so far:

“It was his first time. No one is going to hold it against him for only lasting five minutes. Everyone has performance anxiety. Some breathing exercises, a little extra oxygen, and then maybe next time he can keep it up long enough to actually hit the big O.”

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Did anyone else notice how many times the announcer said "Karman Line" or "internationally recognized space" during the flight? That's a direct shot at Virgin Galactic. 

Personally, I found it a bit cringey. They kept trying to get everybody to act like they were more excited than they really were.

Best,

-Slashy

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1 hour ago, GoSlash27 said:

Did anyone else notice how many times the announcer said "Karman Line" or "internationally recognized space" during the flight? That's a direct shot at Virgin Galactic. 

Personally, I found it a bit cringey. They kept trying to get everybody to act like they were more excited than they really were.

Best,

-Slashy

I watched the NASASpaceflight mirror to avoid this.

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8 hours ago, cubinator said:

It just feels weird because they use ignition as 0 instead of release. Shuttle and Saturn both started up around then in relation to liftoff.

7 hours ago, tater said:

Yeah, their countdown needs to be 10, 9, 8, engine start, 4, 3, 2 ,1 liftoff!

I think that's because orbital rockets aim for a launch window and are designed with an ascent trajectory that starts rising at T=0.  Because there's no particular launch window for a ballistic up-and-down, I guess they focus on engine start.

 

22 minutes ago, cubinator said:

I watched the NASASpaceflight mirror to avoid this.  [ Silly commentary. ]

9 minutes ago, tater said:

I just turned the sound off.

The NSF patter is just about as annoying.

It's almost ever been thus, with patter of some level of irritation going back to Apollo as I remember, likely earlier too.

I wish I could just listen to the Flight Director and Capcom loops.  'Course, you've then gotta learn the lingo, but then it's the best info in the minimum words.  Which coming from being on the radio in the Canadian Forces is what I'm used to: think what you're going to say, get on the air, say it, get off the air.

 

Edited by Jacke
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33 minutes ago, cubinator said:

I watched the NASASpaceflight mirror to avoid this.

Yeah, well I saw that the NSF guys make a snarky tweet about how the *next* scheduled private spaceflight is going into *actual orbit*, so they aren't immune to the same bird-for-tat smugness.

 

(note, that did not say "bird for tat" when I wrote it, but apparently the forum nanny bots thought I was referring to a part of the female anatomy)

Edited by mikegarrison
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14 minutes ago, Jacke said:

think that's because orbital rockets aim for a launch window and are designed with an ascent trajectory that starts rising at T=0.  Because there's no particular launch window for a ballistic up-and-down, I guess they focus on engine start

As I understood it, the original NASA countdowns were “T-minus…” with the T being short for Tmax , or Thrust Max. As in the moment when the vehicle reaches maximum thrust, which is usually when the clamps release.  
But that’s NASA. Other entities can focus the countdown around whichever mark/event they  want. BO apparently chose “Engine Start “

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1 hour ago, tater said:

<blink>

Which raises an interesting question: Is this business model sustainable for any of these players? How many people out there have a million dollars they're willing to spend on lulz?

Best,

-Slashy

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27 minutes ago, GoSlash27 said:

Which raises an interesting question: Is this business model sustainable for any of these players? How many people out there have a million dollars they're willing to spend on lulz?

My friend—the one who could afford either, frankly, texted me today which I liked better. Out of the blue. He said Virgin looked easier/more comfortable. He'd never pay the higher amount of BO though, he'd think it was poor value vs the same thing for 1/4 the price. We're having a guys night whiskey and cards I think Thursday, I'll ask him if he's getting crazy ideas.

So maybe there are more people than you'd expect.

Edited by tater
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4 hours ago, tater said:

And that was a 2/3 sized crew, right?

I didn’t think I would say this until I saw the video, but I’m not so sure I would prefer New Shepard to SpaceShipTwo.

New Shepard has an escape system, which of course is nice. But New Shepard also has a capsule separation event as a LOCV point, which SpaceShipTwo doesn’t have (if SS2 fails to separate, the carrier aircraft can still land in one piece). And it looks like there is way, way more room in SpaceShipTwo’s cabin than in the New Shepard capsule. New Shepard may have bigger windows and technically go higher, but what of it?

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5 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

New Shepard has an escape system, which of course is nice. But New Shepard also has a capsule separation event as a LOCV point, which SpaceShipTwo doesn’t have (if SS2 fails to separate, the carrier aircraft can still land in one piece). And it looks like there is way, way more room in SpaceShipTwo’s cabin than in the New Shepard capsule. New Shepard may have bigger windows and technically go higher, but what of it?

Wouldn't the abort system also take the capsule off?

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3 minutes ago, tater said:

Wouldn't the abort system also take the capsule off?

I would certainly hope so.

But even in an abort, capsule separation is still a LOCV-sensitive event.

If you fire the abort system and the capsule still doesn’t separate, you are not going to space today, or ever.

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4 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

If you fire the abort system and the capsule still doesn’t separate, you are not going to space today, or ever.

Yeah, true.

SpaceShip had that LOC event, but on the other hand the vehicle is manually flown, and the incident was 100% pilot error. Presumably that doesn't happen again (and maybe some cover on the feather control, lol).

 

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14 minutes ago, tater said:

Yeah, true.

SpaceShip had that LOC event, but on the other hand the vehicle is manually flown, and the incident was 100% pilot error. Presumably that doesn't happen again (and maybe some cover on the feather control, lol).

 

IIRC they very, very specifically added a lockout system so that couldn’t foreseeably happen again. 

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30 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

I would certainly hope so.

But even in an abort, capsule separation is still a LOCV-sensitive event.

If you fire the abort system and the capsule still doesn’t separate, you are not going to space today, or ever.

I gather they haven't designed in an "abort to powered landing" mode?

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I'd fly on both given the chance. Idk which one I'd choose given the choice assuming I was able to afford either. It would probably come down to who would be riding with me. They both have their pros and cons.

NS:

  • Likely safer
  • Goes a bit higher
  • Probably more zero G time (haven't counted but it seems intuitive)
  • No asterisks
  • Way bigger windows
  • You get to be cool and walk down a crew access arm

SS2:

  • More windows (they are smaller but still a decent size)
  • Allows you to look straight down
  • Looks waaaayyy cooler
  • In the future won't be limited to one launch site, so you can choose from a much more diverse selection of views than just "desert" (but both are just desert for now)
  • More room to move around and do flips without accidentally hitting people
  • A far longer experience

Could be a pro or a con depending on who you talk to:

  • One has higher Gs
  • One feels more like a rocket, one feels more like a plane
  • Outfits are about the same
  • Webcasts are both subpar but in different ways
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