From around the blogaverse... Clark Lindsey provides a link to a Selenian Boondocks article where the blogger uses some rocket math to show why single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) is difficult. My ... [Read More]
Parabolic Arc posted comments and photos from Jeff Bezos about Blue Origin's recent flight activities. Three months ago they had a successful 'short hop' liftoff and landing flight and, last ... [Read More]
First reported by the Wall Street Journal, Blue Origin lost a spacecraft on August 24th. According to the reports the craft had to be destroyed after control was lost after the craft surpassed Mach ... [Read More]
Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin endevour are the quiet participants in the commercial space race. These just release videos of the “New Shepard” suborbital vehicle test flights are really ... [Read More]
“KENT, Wash. – Blue Origin conducted a successful Pad Escape test last week at its West Texas launch site, firing its pusher escape motor and launching a full-scale suborbital ... [Read More]
The BE-3 is a liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen(LOX/LH2) 100,000 pound thrust engine. The BE-3 is designed to be part of the RBS(Reusable booster system) that powers the Blue Origin Space Vehicle. In ... [Read More]
Historic news for Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin rocket. On Monday the craft went into space (329,839 feet) then returned to earth and landed. Of course this was a sub-orbital flight but still quite ... [Read More]
Blue Origin continues to push SpaceX’s buttons. Its like comparing apples to oranges since all of Blue Origin’s flights have been sub-orbital. It wasn’t long after Blue Ori ... [Read More]
I almost posted an image showing the flight profile vs. the Falcon 9 that landed at the Cape last month. But then I thought, "Why?" Both are great accomplishments. [Read More]
"New Shepard flew again on April 2, 2016 reaching an apogee of 339,178 feet or 103 kilometers. It was the third flight with the same hardware. We pushed the envelope on this flight, restarting the ... [Read More]
Most striking is the extreme speed with which it enters the atmosphere, the Earth is clearly growing larger with each second even from many km up! [Read More]
The Longshots begin unpacking their equipment for practice (Click to enlarge).
The weather was practically perfect this past weekend - not only did I get rockets built ... [Read More]
Blue Origin’s next New Shepard mission (NS-10) is currently targeting liftoff tomorrow at 8:30 am CST / 14:30 UTC. This will be the 10th New Shepard mission and is dedicated to bringing nine ... [Read More]
Now under construction on the old Pegasus field, the Blue Origin rocket engine plant is very big and impressive; I am always amazed at how quickly these buildings are built. They seem to spring up ... [Read More]
Clark Lindsey provides the link to the Mystery at Salt Flat , which explores a facility near Jeff Bezos's test area for Blue Origin in West Texas.
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By SETH BORENSTEIN The Associated Press Monday, February 1, 2010; 4:11 PM WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is redirecting America's space program, killing NASA's $100 billion plans to return ... [Read More]
An article in the El Paso Times notes that, despite some early excitement and anticipation, the proximity of Blue Origin 's facility has not created much of an economic boom in the quiet West ... [Read More]
Sleuthing Blue Origin - Clark Lindsey notes that Blue Origin will be getting gaseous hydrogen (GH2) via a DoD procurement . The Next Big Future posts that General Atomics , while not building a ... [Read More]
By Frank Morring, Jr. Washington U.S. spacecraft engineers with federal funding will pursue at least five different ways to replace the space shuttle in the next few years, from capsules that ... [Read More]
Two items popped up today, yielding a bunch of hits to some old posts. So, I decided I might as well make some mention of them. The first item/event was the 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered ... [Read More]
In the wake of the reports about Blue Origin's crashed vehicle, Clark Lindsey reminds us that new-space companies don't have a monopoly on lander crashes. That's why they test.
We can ... [Read More]
Early Prototype New Shepard Vehicle
Blue Origin has a couple of videos from a test flight earlier in the year. While there, you might want to poke around the rest ... [Read More]
I have this fascination with lander style rockets - Armadillo, Masten, Blue Origin, Unreasonable Rocket, JSC's Morpheus and, now, MSFC's Mighty Eagle. I love the way the latter appears to ... [Read More]
(Reuters) - Budget cuts in a program to spur commercial space taxis will likely keep the United States dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station until 2017, NASA's ... [Read More]
Texas is full of proposed spaceports, most of which have never materialized. In fact, the one with the least published information - Blue Origin's site - is the only one that is op ... [Read More]
Sugar High from Notes from the Technology Underground - Pointer to Bill's Gizmodo article . " One of the awesomest pairings around is the stuff known as rocket candy. Made from a common chemical ... [Read More]
SugarShot2Space's DoubleSShot static test motor CATOs - 85lbs of propellant in a 6" case. Long but interesting. High speed video starts 5 minutes in.
Briefs: X-37B update; Blue Origin & ... [Read More]
If I thought I spread myself too thin last semester... I had no idea what was coming! Junior year in aerospace engineering is famous for requiring super-human abilities. Below I have summarized in a ... [Read More]
Jeff Bezos buys the Washington Post Wow. I wonder what the creator of Amazon, Blue Origin and Bezos Expeditions sees the future of paper newspapers to be. WaPo is currently ... [Read More]
Here is my annual list of things (mostly rocket related) that made me happy and captured my imagination. As usual, in no particular order: 1. Estes released the 29mm E16 and F15 BP motors. ... [Read More]
Yesterday, Blue Origin quietly launched their New Shepard vehicle from their West Texas Facility. The attached video shows the launch and the apparent successful recovery of the capsule. I wonder ... [Read More]
Part 2 of our conversation with Charles Savoie of Aerotech is now on The Rocketry Show. Also, CG, Gheem and I discuss an exciting rocketry project I witnessed a couple weeks ago - a finless, ... [Read More]
"It fell, daddy" - These words were the comment made by a little girl after witnessing a very heavy model of a Blue Origin (I think) spacecraft arc right into the the ground at Southern Thunder. It ... [Read More]
My LGM lies on the ground after its fall (Click to enlarge). Yesterday was a very nice day, perfect rocket flying weather - clear sky, no wind, and an afternoon high of 70 degrees. So Duane and I ... [Read More]
The "virtual" NARCON is actually a great value at $25.00, considering you usually pay for gas, hotel and food. The Zoom style broadcast had some issues. T he format is fairly new to all ... [Read More]
Now you can fly the rocket that launched a thousand memes! The rocket that also blasted William Shatner (“Captain Kirk”) into space, is now a scale flying model from Estes. Using a C6-3 ... [Read More]
Girl scouts watch as the rocket they prepped heads skyward (Click to enlarge) . The John Paul II TARC teams had scheduled a TARC practice for this past Sunday, which provided a perfect excuse for ... [Read More]