Blue Origin thread.

[sevenperforce]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

That would be a really good part of SLS to have on fire.

Even if we all know that SLS is really just Delta V, we still don’t want it to emulate its ordinal predecessor by setting itself on fire at launch.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

26 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Even if we all know that SLS is really just Delta V, we still don’t want it to emulate its ordinal predecessor by setting itself on fire at launch.

I read his statement (in relation to the post he quoted) as a fire 'under it' being the exhaust plume as it launched. 

To which I agree - I want to see it fly 

Edited August 25, 2021 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[Beccab]

An important thing to keep on mind of that was pointed out on Reddit regarding the Jarvis thing is that they are doing this all from Cape: 

Every major crane lift, prop load, pressure test, and static fire will require Range approval and oversight. All GSE will have to be reviewed and approved by the Range. They'll have to pause for launch activities. Payload transports across base put limits on RF transmission. Failed test opportunities won't be a "try again in a few hours" thing, it'll be "try again tomorrow" at best because the Range won't put up with keeping roadblocks in place indefinitely. The Range oversight guys aren't staffed to run 24/7 ops indefinitely, which Blue Origin may want to do. And Blue doesn't have much experience with the Range yet.

SpaceX has had years of working with the Range, demonstrating that they can be safe, getting clarity on rules, learning how to get waivers, learning how to get urgent approvals. And they *still* opted to cancel their Cape R&D program and work in Texas.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

9 hours ago, Beccab said:

SpaceX has had years of working with the Range... And they *still* opted to... work in Texas

So - while I've never launched a rocket to space - I do have years of experience working with 'Range Control' in various places - and you are right: even the best working relationship with RC is still a pain. 

I've worked on Army bases where it seemed like we were not allowed to do anything but a canned and rigidly controlled shoot (and if you missed your time, you went to the back of the queue) - and others where it seemed like we could literally do anything - I mean ANYTHING - presuming we could show all our ducks were in a row and it was safe (order on purpose).  At times it seemed like the only difference was the person sitting behind the desk, at others it was the whole Range culture - so you never quite knew what to expect from one visit to RC to the next.  On Marine bases everything was much easier (because we spoke the same language) - but still a pain because the restrictions (whether on time, space or direction) were hard set - and here's the key - we had to share the range with other entities.   Even when we owned the range entirely, coordination with outside agencies was required - and that proved to be the best situation because we controlled the most variables.  So SX moving to BC is actually brilliant.*

There is no way that they could have done what we've seen in the last 18 months without owning their own range. 

 

*(What they should do is build yet another connected launch area and offer it to NASA / SpaceFarce - which will get the government committed to making sure that the environmental reviews are passed) 

 

[Codraroll]

The backstory in Andy Weir's novel Artemis struck me as a little weird the first time I read it, but over time I've starting to feel it makes more and more sense. In that book, Kenya has emerged as a dominant space power, because they essentially told the private spaceflights of the world "we have no red tape, come to us and launch from the equator" and decided to tolerate whatever consequences came out of it.

[tater]

11 hours ago, Beccab said:

An important thing to keep on mind of that was pointed out on Reddit regarding the Jarvis thing is that they are doing this all from Cape: 

Every major crane lift, prop load, pressure test, and static fire will require Range approval and oversight. All GSE will have to be reviewed and approved by the Range. They'll have to pause for launch activities. Payload transports across base put limits on RF transmission. Failed test opportunities won't be a "try again in a few hours" thing, it'll be "try again tomorrow" at best because the Range won't put up with keeping roadblocks in place indefinitely. The Range oversight guys aren't staffed to run 24/7 ops indefinitely, which Blue Origin may want to do. And Blue doesn't have much experience with the Range yet.

SpaceX has had years of working with the Range, demonstrating that they can be safe, getting clarity on rules, learning how to get waivers, learning how to get urgent approvals. And they *still* opted to cancel their Cape R&D program and work in Texas.

The above goes to the other thread and concerns about Boca Chica. In short, if we ever want to see anything interesting happen in space while any of us are still alive (barring a cure for aging), we need someplace like Boca Chica to work. If we were stuck with "not SpaceX" dev speed, we might as well pick something else to be interested in, nothing will happen—least not in the US.

I'm entirely selfish here. I want to actually personally see space exploration progress. IMO the Shuttle era was almost entirely wasted.

(wasted from my personal standpoint, the ball barely moved down the field in 30 years)

Edited August 25, 2021 by tater

[Vanamonde]

Some posts removed. Guys, if you know the joke is too crass make here, please don't say so and then make it anyway. 

[tater]

I guess they flew NS today, I didn't watch.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.space.com/amp/blue-origin-new-shepard-ns-17-launch-webcast

Curious as to how suborbital flights are going to be economical or perform sufficient science to make continued use of NS viable. 

Looking more like a Texas sized tourist attraction 

Maybe once the kids are out of college and it's just the wife and I... She'll buy me a ticket? 

 

 

 

 

... 

(he said worriedly) 

Edited August 26, 2021 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[Beccab]

6 minutes ago, tater said:

I guess they flew NS today, I didn't watch.

I did, and I regret doing so. It was an extremely painful stream.

1: launch should have happened 30 minutes after liftoff, it was actually 90 minutes later when they passed 50 minutes on hold and later added 10 minutes to the countdown
2: commentary was maybe very slightly better than last time, but it was still a 20 minutes boring commercial plus 60 minutes of silence, broken only by the occasional cricket starting to make noise near the camera
3: no reason given for the hold nor any information about how much it would last, they must have said "the countdown will restart shortly" at least five times during the last hold
4: calling the previous flight "historical", lol

[StrandedonEarth]

Oh, this Twitter thread gets mean….

Much of the thread amounts to “They’re building [whiny] infographics”. Or it’s a legal annex

[Nothalogh]

On 8/26/2021 at 8:12 PM, StrandedonEarth said:

Oh, this Twitter thread gets mean….

Much of the thread amounts to “They’re building [whiny] infographics”. Or it’s a legal annex

A datacenter, to store their PDFs

[Beccab]

https://spacenews.com/space-force-launch-director-on-vulcan-and-be-4-we-have-to-be-very-focused-from-here-on-out/
Most of it is just what Tory already said, but this quote is a bit more critical than usual

"The delays [of the BE-4] are due to a multitude of reasons, some of them reasonable for development programs, some of them not as reasonable"

[Beccab]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/blue-origin-hires-advisory-firm-linked-to-messy-jedi-contract-process/

[tater]

How to say, "We're a bunch of scumbags!" without actually saying "We're a bunch of scumbags!"

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, tater said:

How to say, "We're a bunch of scumbags!" without actually saying "We're a bunch of scumbags!"

 

Well, they are designing a lander… maybe this is how they do research into digging themselves into a really deep hole… with rockets… 

[tater]

Somehow up thread I wrote that Lauren Lyons (who left BO recently to become COO of Firefly) I wrote that she was hired away from SpaceX by BO to work on their HLS program (which I am sure I had read). The news release on the firefly page says her BO position was "a Lead Systems Engineer in Blue Origin’s Advanced Concepts."

Maybe she had something to do with Jarvis?

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, tater said:

her BO position was "a Lead Systems Engineer in Blue Origin’s Advanced Concepts."

Meh… HLS probably was an advanced concept. That is apparently still waiting to advance…

[tater]

 

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, tater said:

 

By the way things are going, BO started drinking at 15….

[Lewie]

2 hours ago, tater said:

 

And yet they’ve accomplished....what? A joyride for the uber-rich?

Yes, BO has a good vision but their progress/pr has yet to reflect that

[tater]

 

 

[sh1pman]

On 9/9/2021 at 3:35 AM, Lewie said:

And yet they’ve accomplished....what? A joyride for the uber-rich?

Almost completed engines for Vulcan rocket.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

2 hours ago, sh1pman said:

Almost completed engines for Vulcan rocket.

I took my car to the shop to have a simple repair done (fix a broken door handle).  They told me that I needed to schedule the repair - so we did that and I brought my truck back two weeks later.  Figured it wouldn't take long for them to fix it, so I asked what time I could pick up the truck. They said they would call me. 

 

So for the next 4 days we had daily conversations about how they had almost gotten started with my scheduled repair. 

Makes me wish I had just bought the specialized door panel tools and done it myself.  The 'convenience' of the dealership proved inconvenient. 

 

Guessing ULA feels a bit like this now. 

[AtomicTech]

On 9/8/2021 at 7:02 PM, StrandedonEarth said:

By the way things are going, BO started drinking at 15….