Launch a rocket, now return it!

May 10, 2016 5:48 PM

On April 2nd, 2016, Blue Origin launched The New Shepard rocket and it reached the planned altitude of 339,138 feet. After jettisoning the unmanned capsule, the rocket began a controlled descent and this is what the return looked like from a camera mounted on the outside.

Short view about the launch and landing from Blue Origin.

posted by Brandon Blatcher (28 comments total)

What a strange new world of billionaires having space-races with each other we live in. Still, it's fun and a lot less objectiobable than some of the other things the overly-monied get up to.
posted by Artw at 6:03 PM on May 10, 2016 [9 favorites]

I just wish one of them would make some Zeppelins.
posted by notyou at 6:06 PM on May 10, 2016 [11 favorites]

About the video! It starts out slow, then the ground starts getting closer and closer really fast. The shadow of the lander appears, the rockets fire, and then the ground comes a lot more slowly. The bit at the end, with the glare from the flames is a nice touch.
posted by notyou at 6:08 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

For some weird reason, I'm finding myself rooting for spaceX over blue origin since I so much enjoyed their videos off their rockets exploding.
posted by midmarch snowman at 6:17 PM on May 10, 2016 [8 favorites]

Musk seems more likeable than Bezos, too.
posted by notyou at 6:23 PM on May 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

Right, but Musk is trying to speed the transition away from fossil fuels and Bezos is trying to speed the transition away from book stores.
posted by gwint at 6:34 PM on May 10, 2016 [8 favorites]

Wow, someone really upgraded their Kerbal Space Program graphics.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:39 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's the 1.1.2 patch.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:45 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Obvious fake.

At least Kubrik was a little more creative than just playing the film backwards.
posted by adept256 at 7:09 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

You can tell it's fake by checking the alignment of product images of cans of beans in the Amazon produce section.
posted by Artw at 7:16 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'll be impressed when they do the same thing coming in from orbital speed, with engines that can't throttle down to the weight of the craft, and land on a barge in the ocean.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:32 PM on May 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

What a strange new world of billionaires having space-races with each other we live in. Still, it's fun and a lot less objectiobable than some of the other things the overly-monied get up to.

Give them time. Eventually, one of them is going to realize the benefits of a pre-emptive strike against a competitor.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:51 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

An orbital launch capacity IS basically an ICBM capacity, it's true.
posted by Artw at 8:00 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Musk seems more likeable than Bezos, too.

Um. Hmm.

*long, thoughtful pause*

Yes, it's true, he does indeed seem to be that way.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 8:43 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, everything I've heard about Musk suggests he's rather an asshole on a personal level. On the other hand, unlike some of the ultrarich he's doing things that might make the future better, so y'know, I'll take him over the Kochs.
posted by tavella at 8:55 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

This eccentricity is much more in line with my interests than hunting poors for sport or whatever the fuck the Kochs do when not trying to buy elections, it's true.
posted by Artw at 9:03 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

If the order to launch the Shepard rocket is anything other than "I should go," I'm gonna be really disappointed.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:34 PM on May 10, 2016

I would say fake but my brother installs and runs the cameras. That being said we were the ones that buried things of differing ages at different levels to mess with future archaelogists, so perhaps he is just pranking me. Well played Bub.

From all reports from my brother, Bezos seems to be very nice to work for. Additionally, his slow focused plodding strategy seems to me to be a better strategy than that being used by Musk. Certainly if going by number of explosions it seems to be working better.
posted by wobumingbai at 10:06 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Artw: "What a strange new world of billionaires having space-races with each other we live in. Still, it's fun and a lot less objectiobable than some of the other things the overly-monied get up to."

It's like the Silicon Valley version of yachting, though why do I have a feeling they do *that* too?
posted by symbioid at 10:34 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's pretty nuts that the rocket was dropping like a rock seconds before it landed.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 10:35 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Certainly if going by number of explosions it seems to be working better.

The two rocket programs are so different though. The last Falcon 9 mission delivered a satellite into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (22,000 miles above the surface of the earth) and requires speeds of Mach 10 to boost the payload that far. The Blue Origin rocket reached 65 miles above the surface of the earth with a maximum speed of Mach 3.
posted by xdvesper at 10:41 PM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've seen Paul Allen's yacht, it looks like something James Bond should be leading a scuba assault on.
posted by Artw at 11:28 PM on May 10, 2016

SpaceX - launched dozens of satellites to high orbit, resupplied the ISS, and plans to go to Mars.

Blue Origin - Plans to haul a bunch of rich tourists 60 miles in the air and unfortunately bring them back.
posted by stoat_pamphlet at 6:15 AM on May 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Blue Origin is also making the engines for the Vulcan rocket, replacing a Russian rocket, so it's not like they don't have a serious toehold in launchers as well as the lander research.
posted by Artw at 6:21 AM on May 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's not Virgin Galactic, is what I'm saying.
posted by Artw at 6:22 AM on May 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

What a strange new world of billionaires having space-races with each other we live in. Still, it's fun and a lot less objectiobable than some of the other things the overly-monied get up to.

I've heard the theory that this is basically the modern incarnation of "new money" vs "old money".

If you're rich because you're part of one of the few dynasties that can manage to conserve wealth through more than three generations, then your behavior is likely to be, well, wealth-conserving. Maybe you'll mix a few small-caps in with the blue-chip stocks in your portfolio.

If you're rich because you made a billion dollars doing crazy things with bleeding-edge technologies, then your behavior is likely to involve doing crazy things with bleeding-edge technologies. Plus, come on, space ships! Isn't that what normal people would do with a billion dollars?

It's pretty nuts that the rocket was dropping like a rock seconds before it landed.

SpaceX calls this a "hover slam", but the Kerbal Space Plane community seems to be responsible for the most popular vocabulary here: "suicide burn". What's scary about rocket landings is that suicide burns aren't just nuts, they're also practically mandatory. Every second you spend hovering is a second of extra gravity losses wasting your fuel, and fuel margins are tight, so you want to do your deceleration as fast as possible, not hover.

SpaceX actually takes this to the extreme with a rocket design that can't hover - a fueled-up Grasshopper weighed enough to hover and descend gently while testing, but a nearly-empty Falcon 9 first stage can't. Even with 8 of 9 engines turned off, and the 9th throttled down as far as it can go (to 70% of full thrust - it's actually really hard to decrease most rocket engines' thrust without combustion instabilities, and it's amazing that Blue Origin's BE-3 can throttle down under 25%), there's more thrust than there is weight. So not only does the Falcon 9 first stage landing trajectory need to avoid hitting zero velocity at negative altitude (because that would imply hitting too fast), it also needs to avoid hitting zero velocity at positive altitude (because that would leave no option other than cutting the engine in mid-air and falling the rest of the way).
posted by roystgnr at 6:35 AM on May 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

What a strange new world of billionaires having space-races with each other we live in. Still, it's fun and a lot less objectiobable than some of the other things the overly-monied get up to.

When billionaires having private space races is the better, more benevolent option, you know we're living in an actual dystopia.
posted by Dysk at 7:17 AM on May 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

SpaceX calls this a "hover slam", but the Kerbal Space Plane community seems to be responsible for the most popular vocabulary here: "suicide burn".

I thought the Kerbal Space Plane community were the part of the Kerbal Space Program community who actively avoided suicide burns (by engaging in a no less ridiculously difficult or complicated thing).
posted by Dysk at 7:22 AM on May 11, 2016 [2 favorites]