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Blue Origin thread.


Vanamonde

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More details here: https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/commercial-space/new-glenn-rolls-launchpad-tanking-test

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the test vehicle will remain at the pad for several days for an integrated tanking test (ITT). The first stage is flight hardware that will be used on a future mission. For the ITT, the booster will be filled with liquid nitrogen, rather than the liquid oxygen and liquified natural gas

It'll also go through a static fire 1-3ish months before launch.

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Following the ITT, the first stage will be outfitted with an aft structure and the BE-4 engines, mated with a new upper stage and then returned to launchpad this summer for a hot fire.

The engines for this are completing qualification testing now. Also, the second stage won't be filled, and it's not flight hardware. It sounds like the booster they're using for the static fire isn't being used for the first launch, but it will be for a future one.

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Building on experience operating its reusable New Shepard suborbital launch system, Blue plans to land its New Glenn rockets beginning with the first flight.

Cool detail, and another thing that'll make this launch one to see live. They sound confident about it.

Other details; the inital fleet will have 4 boosters, which are all in production, with expected turnarounds of 30 days. 3 second stages are completed, and 3 more are in production. And fairings for the first 7/8 missions have been built, not much info about the engines other than that the ones for the first hot fire are in testing.

They're trying to hit the ground running. They're expecting 2 launches this year, likely to put everything through its paces and make sure it all works, but they're looking to have the ability to launch at least 12 rockets annually up front, with equipment coming in to bring that to 24.

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21 hours ago, Spaceception said:

Blue Origin revealing the secret barge they've been working on.

19sn.gif

Someone with an AI video account could prompt it with:

"Video of air craft carrier aggressively surfacing from under water like a submarine"

Edited by darthgently
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On 2/21/2024 at 12:45 PM, Spaceception said:

The engines for this are completing qualification testing now.

How's that coming along? I'm calling it right now, we are gonna have memes in a few months with Jeff Bezos going "Jeff, where are my engines?!?"

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13 hours ago, darthgently said:

Someone with an AI video account could prompt it with:

"Video of air craft carrier aggressively surfacing from under water like a submarine"

C’mon, this is Bezos money we’re talking about here, there’s a reason we haven’t  seen it yet… <_<

Spoiler

helicarrier-avengers.gif

 

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28 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

C’mon, this is Bezos money we’re talking about here, there’s a reason we haven’t  seen it yet… <_<

  Hide contents

helicarrier-avengers.gif

 

Maybe its just me, but there is a saying: "to be successful, you need to either be first, be smarter, or cheat."

Bezos does not strike me as an intellectual titan.

I digress, my apologies. I honestly do hope New Glenn is coming along well. My snide comments are because I have had enough of the "gradatim" thing.

I am yearning for the day that launch companies compete like its a weekly F1 race.

Edited by Meecrob
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https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/commercial-space/blue-origins-new-ceo-honing-companys-business-practices

Interview with Limp (new CEO):

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What is the market for Blue Origin services, considering the established companies in the field already?

Sixty days ago, I came from a place that was buying a lot of rockets, and I believe that in five years the world is going to need a lot more launch capacity than what has been predicted. When every launch costs $60 million to $100 million, you have one set of customers. If you can get the price down by an order of magnitude, you open up [the market] to a far huger set of customers.

NG is not gonna drop costs by an order of magnitude, but he has the right idea.

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On 2/22/2024 at 4:47 AM, tater said:

GG6RqOLbIAAq4Fi?format=jpg&name=large

Interesting they are still using horizontal transport, Starship is moved vertical, now N1 was also raised and it was probably heavier and the transporter was even larger requiring two railway tracks. 

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11 hours ago, Meecrob said:

Maybe its just me, but there is a saying: "to be successful, you need to either be first, be smarter, or cheat."

Bezos does not strike me as an intellectual titan.

I digress, my apologies. I honestly do hope New Glenn is coming along well. My snide comments are because I have had enough of the "gradatim" thing.

I am yearning for the day that launch companies compete like its a weekly F1 race.

Bezos is an easy target for snark, sure, but like or hate the guy do NOT underestimate him.  Look at what he’s already built, he may or may not have done some questionable things to get it to that point but he is NOT stupid. He’s also got the resources as a result of that to be very, very patient. If he (and his team) say there’s an unseen market looking, I’m wont to believe that, especially when a certain other easy target for snark who’s also built impossible industries says similar. 
 

12 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Interesting they are still using horizontal transport, Starship is moved vertical, now N1 was also raised and it was probably heavier and the transporter was even larger requiring two railway tracks. 

Probably easier overall. Doing everything vertical requires massive (read: expensive) buildings and cranes. Plus, there’s the added difficulty of a vertical transporter that can mount that not-insignificant incline up to the launch mount while also keeping the rocket perfectly vertical. 

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12 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

 Look at what he’s already built

What has he built? Honestly, everyone thought to sell stuff online, he just had the most influential investors. AWS is another thing that is obvious. Yeah, why would startups buy servers when AWS can gain economies of scale? its not genius to come up with these things. Don't get me started on how its taken him over two decades to maybe get an orbital flight article to testing.

Don't get me wrong, I wish Blue Origin all the best, but Jeff Bezos believes that good managers are good managers and puts no value in hiring an actual engineer to run his program that is literally mostly engineers.

Edited by Meecrob
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