Blue Origin's New Shepard - VTVL Rocket First Test Flight

[Airlock]

Blue Origin conducted the first flight of their New Shepard suborbital VTVL today. It is intended to be completely reusable, using propulsive landing similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9R. They plan to use the vehicle for suborbital tourist flights in the near future, while simultaneously scaling their hardware into a fully reusable orbital launch system powered by their BE-4 Methalox engine.

Today's launch went well, with separation occurring flawlessly at an altitude of 307,000 feet (93.57 kilometers). While the capsule safely returned to the desert under parachutes, the first stage ran into trouble (an issue ironically similar to a certain landing attempt earlier this year). The booster lost pressure in its hydraulic systems and was unable to land successfully.

First Developmental Test Flight of New Shepard

Today we flew the first developmental test flight of our New Shepard space vehicle. Our 110,000-lbf thrust liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen BE-3 engine worked flawlessly, powering New Shepard through Mach 3 to its planned test altitude of 307,000 feet... The in-space separation of the crew capsule from the propulsion module was perfect. Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return... one of our goals is reusability, and unfortunately we didn’t get to recover the propulsion module because we lost pressure in our hydraulic system on descent. Fortunately, we’ve already been in work for some time on an improved hydraulic system. Also, assembly of propulsion module serial numbers 2 and 3 is already underway... We chose VTVL because it’s scalable to very large size. We’re already designing New Shepard’s sibling, her Very Big Brother – an orbital launch vehicle that is many times New Shepard’s size and is powered by our 550,000-lbf thrust liquefied natural gas, liquid oxygen BE-4 engine.

Orbital Spaceflight Vehicle

The orbital launch system is comprised of a two-stage rocket and capsule that will carry astronauts and payloads to low-Earth orbit destinations. Similar to our suborbital vehicle, the first stage booster will separate and land back on Earth. An expendable second stage will continue to propel the capsule into orbit, toward scientific research and exploration. At the completion of its flight, the capsule will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and land under parachutes, enabling reuse, improved reliability and lower cost access to space.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Airlock

[Kibble]

Its...rather phallic, isn't it?

[SargeRho]

Its...rather phallic, isn't it?

Such is the nature of rockets.

[Nibb31]

Impressive for a first flight. It looks like they'll be filling Virgin Galactic's niche before SpaceShipTwo, although they were a few kilometers short from reaching the Karman line. I must admit that I have more faith in VTVL than in HTHL when it comes to space flight.

[Kibble]

Hey just did some BOTE calculations - Shepard-Castor launch vehicle, adding a Castor-30 second stage and a Star-48 kick stage should bee able to get around 1090 kg to LEO from Cape Canaveral, or around 687 kg to SSO from Vandenberg! Would bee awesome to see that fly. These numbers come pre-packaged heavily salted, though, I couldn't find any figures on the wet/dry mass of the vehicle or anything, but I estimated the rocket stage at about 3m diameter and 12m height.

[Kryten]

Impressive for a first flight. It looks like they'll be filling Virgin Galactic's niche before SpaceShipTwo, although they were a few kilometers short from reaching the Karman line. I must admit that I have more faith in VTVL than in HTHL when it comes to space flight.

There were a couple FAA notifications for short altitude rocket activity at their test sight in the past month. I suspect there were short hops before this.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Kryten

[Frozen_Heart]

Its...rather phallic, isn't it?

When you've been following spaceflight long enough you stop even noticing that lol.

[Reddragon]

Impressive for a first flight. It looks like they'll be filling Virgin Galactic's niche before SpaceShipTwo, although they were a few kilometers short from reaching the Karman line. I must admit that I have more faith in VTVL than in HTHL when it comes to space flight.

It is also safer then the spaceplane.

[Kryten]

It is also safer then the spaceplane.

Well, so far the test vehicle was destroyed on ascent by aerodynamic forces on it's first flight higher than a short hop, and now the first actual one crashed on it's first official flight. In terms of flight success the record is much worse than SS1 or even SS2.

[Camacha]

When you've been following spaceflight long enough you stop even noticing that lol.

Admittedly, this rocket's shape is somewhat different than others.

[Ralathon]

Won't they have very high G forces during the return? The first mercury missions also did suborbital hops and they hit 12G's on reentry. I can't imagine that'll be comfortable for the passengers.

[Kryten]

These flights are straight up and down, Mercury-Redstone ended up nearly 500km downrange. Acceleration should be much less.

[Camacha]

These flights are straight up and down, Mercury-Redstone ended up nearly 500km downrange. Acceleration should be much less.

How do you imagine that?

[Kryten]

Lower velocity, and lower heating so less need to get rid of it so rapidly.

[Camacha]

Lower velocity, and lower heating so less need to get rid of it so rapidly.

I am not sure the causality of that statement is in order. If anything, a steep trajectory would need to bleed off speed faster when all other factors are equal, which I think are not either.

[Robotengineer]

Where is the abort system?

[Kryten]

Where is the abort system?

Base of the capsule, pusher. There's a test video I'd link, but I can't find it now that they've redesigned their site.

EDIT: Found it;

Edited April 30, 2015 by Kryten

[Dkmdlb]

Very impressive. I wonder what the specs for that escape system are.

[tater]

Wow, awesome.

[tater]

Pics from here: http://www.space.com/29278-blue-origin-launches-private-spaceship-test.html

[Wallygator]

Its...rather phallic, isn't it?

Read my sig...

[Josh Harris]

In that shot of the booster, the interface w/ the crew capsule looks like a KSP decoupler.

Go Blue! Congrats!