I have to wonder though just what the point is to only send a crew up for a very few minutes of microgravity? It seems to be nothing more than a very expensive "joy ride" to be honest.

7 minutes ago, n4gix said:

I have to wonder though just what the point is to only send a crew up for a very few minutes of microgravity? It seems to be nothing more than a very expensive "joy ride" to be honest.

Much like the Wright Flyer, New Shepard is the stepping stone (proof of concept, tech progress, learning curve, etc.) to something bigger and better. In this instance, operating the much larger New Glenn rocket programme and eventually onto Blue Moon.

If they can encourage some HNWIs to splash the cash for suborbital 'Spaceflights' and therefore subsidise their other programme, then fair play to them, I say.
Better effort than Virgin Galactic - remember them?

It is by design; a very expensive joy ride. Sub-orbital space tourism.  We`re in the Age of the Jetsons. Well, some of us are... anyway...

 

5 minutes ago, F737NG said:

Better effort than Virgin Galactic - remember them?

Who could forget that abomination of a 'launch vehicle' that seems to have been a very expensive aircraft that's been sitting around gathering dust and rust? 

8 hours ago, n4gix said:

Who could forget that abomination of a 'launch vehicle' that seems to have been a very expensive aircraft that's been sitting around gathering dust and rust? 

 

Virgin Galactic isn't sitting around gathering dust. Its alive and well and in testing. It was actually the creation of legendary desighner Burton Rutan and is a remarkable design. 

https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/virgin-galactic-update-on-test-flight-program/

There's also Virgin Orbit thats launching its first satalite soon.

9 hours ago, CYXR said:

It is by design; a very expensive joy ride. Sub-orbital space tourism.  We`re in the Age of the Jetsons. Well, some of us are... anyway...

 

 

Shepherd is yes. Its a first step toward New Glen which will be a heavy lift vehicle capable of taking payloads and people to orbit and beyond. Every journey begins with the first step.

On 1/15/2021 at 6:03 PM, martin-w said:

I think we have seen internal footage on previous flights. 

Indeed we have, but I was hoping they'd broadcast internal footage from the refitted capsule 

29 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

Indeed we have, but I was hoping they'd broadcast internal footage from the refitted capsule 

 

I'll put in a request for you. It looks very posh and those big windows will provide an awesome view.

 

Nightmare...

 

Seems rather petty to me.
One could argue that Virgin's flight lasts 90 minutes, while Blue Origin's is only 11 minutes.

And that's before you mention that neither go into L.E.O...

Still, the commercialisation of space travel (if done responsibly) is something I welcome, even if I'll never get to go myself.
Looking forward to watching both 'Unity 22' mission this Sunday and NS-16 on 20th.


Hahaha... seems I'm not the only one to think that:
https://mobile.twitter.com/daily_hopper/status/1413569511362605060/photo/1
 

Edited July 10, 20214 yr by F737NG

Yeah, doesn't tell the whole story. The Virgin craft is designed to take passengers just about into space, briefly, nothing more, so in that respect its pretty much almost achieved its goal. And its done so without expending huge amounts of fuel with a traditional rocket. Virgin have done so with a 100% reusable space plane. 

Blue Origin are ultimately supposed to be doing way more than that and despite many years of development progress is at a snails pace and the taking passengers briefly into low earth orbit thing is not the companies ultimate objective. Thus, its is way way behind in regard to its intended goals.

And then we have to remember that Virgin have successfully launched paying customers satellites into orbit from beneath a 747 for low cost. 

Edited July 10, 20214 yr by martin-w