How business is taking the space race to new frontiers Jeff Bezos may not have gone where no man has gone before, but in successfully landing its New Shephard rocket back on Earth, his rocket company Blue Origins has pipped ahead of rivals in the race to make space commercially viable. It’s a significant coup in the latest incarnation of the space race. And it may have given pause …
Totally agree. The dv of the new shepard rocket upon separation was almost zero. This makes huge difference in terms of controlled decent, re-entry into the atmosphere and drift from the touch down target. I mean, how far were they from the launch pad when they began decent?
It's a good proof of concept but is so far from an orbital launch comparison it's like comparing golf buggies to the Model S.
The ROI wasn't important to Og, I believe. Seeing what was on the other side and hoping to return and tell the tale was. Og was more of a Shepard or Glenn or a Gagarin.
His grandson on the other hand.... probably figured out how to hollow it out and make an ROI.
Dreamed of this and read about it 60 years ago - when I also dreamed and read about waking up dead in a thermonuclear holocaust, and of billions of people starving or in chains or both. My nightmares are receding. The dream of affordable access to such things as energy, materials, room, and even places to toss dangerous trash - that's not a dream after this.
Nothing since 1942 made the world one, opens up so much opportunity for the human race as this.
"The commercial space sector stands on the shoulders of giants. There is no doubt of the debt that is due to original state investments, which developed the technology, infrastructure and human capital that is now drawn on by commercial space companies."
Those old giants were commercial companies, too. The Saturn V didn't have "Made by NASA" stamped on its stages, it was built by Boeing, IBM, North American, and many other commercial entities. SpaceX, as awesome as it has been, wouldn't be at its current stage of development without billions of state funding on state contracts.
"It used to be a traditional hierarchical model where commercial entities were suppliers to state agencies that conceived of, led and carried out missions."
SpaceX is a supplier to a state agency on state contracts for state missions. Not that I mind - state monies are great enablers of some of the most incredible adventures in human history. But let's stop romanticizing SpaceX and the other new space companies as somehow more commercial than all the commercial space entities before them.
And, as we are increasingly seeing, commercial entities can launch their own missions.
Increasingly? Boeing and Lockheed-Martin have been running commercial launch operations for decades. I like the new capabilities and ease (cost) of space access being developed, but that's not somehow because SpaceX and Orbital and Blue Origin are more commercial and less state-funded than the companies before them. Rather, their successes are based to a large extent on state funds and prior advances in space technology.
First of all, kudos to Blue Origin (Is it wrong that I'm madly tempted to just put their name as BO ? Seriously, did Bezos not think that through?) for launching a sub-orbital rocket, getting it up to just over 100km, getting both the capsule and booster stage back.
It is not an 'In-your-face' to Elon Musk & SpaceX. Taking something up to 100km and then bringing it down again safely is easier (easier as in 'relatively easier', I'm sure you or I couldn't do it) than getting a 1st stage that's sent something on its way to orbit back to the ground for an easy landing.
Remember, it's not the distance of the Wright Brother's first flight that impresses us these days. In fact, the distance wasn't much, the design was flawed and the pilot skill was pretty low... but... it pointed, very clearly, at the future which very quickly thereafter.
Reusable rockets and getting your first stage back, like the first flight at Kitty Hawk, are important because they show us the future of commercial rocketry.
And let's hope that future will come as fast, and develop as quickly, as powered flight did.
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