Watch: Blue Origin’s sixth successful booster flight [photos, video]
Blue Origin’s suborbital rocket known as New Shephard reached an altitude of 105 kilometres on the day of the test. The spacecraft sucessfully crossed the internationally recognised boundary of space known as the Karman line.
Blue Origin’s purpose is to one day carry six astronaut passengers. The trip will last only ten minutes, but comes with a whopping price tag of a million dollars.
Blue Origin crewless test results
Testing of the rockets began back in 2015 and the one which undertook the crewless test flight on Wednesday 11 December 2019 had already completely five launches prior to this.
After the booster fired its engines, the spacecraft made a controlled landing back on Earth. Furthermore, the capsule was aided by parachutes as it floated in an upright position back down.
Watch: The New Shepard Flight Experience
The excitement was palpable when the New Shephard spacecraft made it back safely, with the team announcing on Twitter that the 6th consecutive flight was successful; and a new record, no less.
“Touchdown! The New Shepard crew capsule has successfully landed. […] This is the 6th consecutive successful flight to space and back for this fully reusable rocket booster.”
Twitter
View the live stream of the test flights here.
Partnering with NASA
Blue Origin recently teamed up with three other legacy space companies – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper – to pool their resources and produce a lunar landing system for NASA.
Moreover, the alliance is an indication of how ambitious NASA’s timeline is. Clearly, the companies must have come to realise that none of them will be able to provide the required crafts on their own in the allocated time.
“New Shepard’s flight profile makes it an ideal platform for microgravity physics, gravitational biology, tech demos, art projects and educational programs. Earth, atmospheric and space science research are all possible on New Shepard.”
Twitter
Moon lunar lander design and function
Designed to deliver science payloads, moon rovers and potentially even astronauts to the moon surface, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander is understandably large.
Blue Moon shares a few design similarities with the Apollo lunar modules. Hwever it’s not hard to spot a few noteable differences between Blue Moon and NASA’s lunar predecessors.
Blue moon has an appreciably sleeker design and sports a substantial spherical fuel tank emblazoned with the words “Blue Moon” in big blue letters.
It is, in essence, a fully autonomous robotic spacecraft. The lunar is also equipped with a crane-like system capable of lowering payloads to the lunar surface.
Watch: The New Shepard Crew Capsule
Also read: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to team up with three other legacy space companies
No comments: