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Nikxice
Active Member
Good point. It could also be that the current New Shepard vehicle is quite safe, yet it's being hamstrung by a couple of top decision makers, perhaps even Bezos himself. If Elon was running this program, those folks would be gone as fast as the former Starlink senior managers fired last year in Redmond, WA.
BO is very quiet on what they do so we really have no clue how much refurbishment is done between each of these launches. It's nice they're reusing the New Shepard, but with months between launches, how much work is being done on the booster is relevant. One of these days BO or VG will finally take some paying passenger into suborbital space.
I still enjoy watching the actual launch in spite of the over the top gushing of the announcer.
I still enjoy watching the actual launch in spite of the over the top gushing of the announcer.
Nikxice
Active Member
I think she just needs to work a little more on her sonic boom imitation. Next time, louder please and with more enthusiasm!
BO is pushing on NG—its very likely they’re testing different scenarios and gathering data to make the NG rollout faster, not dissimilar to Spacex early days. NS being suborbital can’t also put things on orbit so the outward appearance of their activity might seem repetitive and pointless relative to (again) spacex early days.
Dr. J
Active Member
She always has a future in calling the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
I don't know what you try to say. Practically; from the first Falcon 1 flight to the F9 FT Block 5 (excluding reuses) each rocket has had some changes on them, actually so much that AF didn't want certify them before "frozen design".
Early days of SpaceX, there were monthly to weekly blog post directly from Elon reporting in detail what they were doing, changes on rocket and engines, avionics with pictures. From ablatively cooled Merlin 1A to the regeneratively cooled Merlin 1C just in three flights, and sixth flight was Falcon 9 with Dragon...
Example of SpaceX update:
Update
June 2004 - July 2004
(Note: Subscribers to the email list receive the update a few days earlier than it is posted on the website. Email address privacy is always respected.)
Public Viewing of the Maiden Launch
The maiden launch will be open to the public and we will post the exact date on our website in the coming months. Oddly enough, the Air Force designated viewing location from which you will be able to see the Falcon I launch is called “Hawk’s Nest” (no relation to us) and is accessed off of Hwy 1 on Azalea Lane near Vandenberg.
Our current schedule calls for transferring the rocket to the pad in September, performing a short duration vehicle hold down firing and launching as soon thereafter as possible, without compromising safety or reliability. We will not launch until all engineers are two thumbs up, so that date may get pushed back.
Since this is a high energy, orbital flight, Air Force range safety has a minimum keep out radius of at least 2 miles. However, Falcon I is seven stories tall with an 85,000 lb vacuum thrust engine and a long, bright LOX/RP flame tail, so the launch will definitely be worth seeing.
Launch Manifest
Below is our expected launch schedule. The “contracted” launches are those with a signed contract and for which we have received a deposit. Tentative means we have had serious, in-depth discussions with the potential customer and believe that there is a greater than fifty percent likelihood of sale. As you might expect, we have had many discussions with potential customers that are waiting for at least one successful launch before committing. Those are not mentioned here.
Customer Launch Date
Vehicle
Departure Point
Status
US Defense Dept Q4 2004 Falcon I Vandenberg Contracted
US Defense Dept
Q2 2005 Falcon I Marshall Islands Tentative
International Government Q4 2005 Falcon I Marshall Islands Contracted
Bigelow Aerospace Q4 2005 Falcon V Vandenberg Contracted
International Commercial Q3 2006 Falcon V Cape Canaveral Tentative
Kistler Sole Source Contract
As some who have been following this matter will note, the General Accounting Office (GAO) agreed with SpaceX that the Kistler sole source contract should not have been granted. It is my understanding that NASA has not yet decided their next course of action. To be clear, my concern with the contract was primarily the very negative market signal that issuing a large and (as the GAO has ruled) unjustified sole source contract to a bankrupt company would send. I think it would be a good thing if Kistler emerged from bankruptcy and continued to pursue their launch vehicle development, albeit only on a fair playing field.
The best destination for those now unallocated tax dollars is open access, performance based contracts (a.k.a. prizes) under the NASA Centennial Prize program. If that is done, it will do wonders to invigorate commercial space development and spur new entrants into the orbital space launch business, just as the X Prize has done for sub-orbital.
SpaceX Launch Pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base
A lot of work has been done getting our launch pad ready at Vandenberg. Although we were able to start with the existing concrete foundation of an old Atlas II pad, there was literally nothing else in place. Compared to other launch pads at Vandenberg, we don’t require much, but there is still a lot of work to do to have a professional launch infrastructure.
We do not use a permanent tower on the pad, employing instead our mobile erector/launcher platform. This is stored in a protected environment when not in use, so is not subject to weather damage and corrosion. This makes our maintenance costs very low and minimizes time spent on the launch pad, which in turn reduces our launch operations costs. We can prepare the entire rocket for launch in the controlled environment of our factory, rather than do final assembly at the launch site.
Right now, all the electrical and communications wiring is in process of being installed and connected to the base grid. In addition, there is a lot of plumbing work to connect liquid oxygen, RP-1 kerosene, helium and nitrogen. These feed into the quick disconnect umbilicals on the rocket, which detach as the rocket lifts off. The water deluge for heat and noise suppression on launch will just use standard base water pressure, as Falcon I doesn’t need anything more to meet specifications.
The CAD solid model below shows what Falcon I will look like on the pad with the mobile launcher, before it is erected for flight:
Falcon I before flight
Here you can see an actual picture of Space Launch Complex - Three West (SLC-3W), our home at Vandenberg, under construction. Lockheed, our next door neighbor at SLC-3E, is preparing their Atlas V pad for launch. They have been good, courteous neighbors and hopefully Lockheed sees us the same way.
“Pad sweet pad”
A tremendous amount of progress was made on the technology development front, as described below. Major milestones include: Merlin fully integrated engine firing with flight tanks, stage separation tested, fairing separation tested and most of the flight avionics & antenna pattern tested.
Elon
TECHNICAL UPDATES
Propulsion
Merlin Integrated Engine Test
After many delays and a few setbacks, we have fired Merlin (our main engine) in the fully integrated configuration, with both the thrust chamber assembly, turbo-pump and gas generator attached to a set of flight tanks. This is one of the biggest milestones before launch and the culmination of a tremendous amount of work by the propulsion team.
All the unit testing done on the thrust chamber, turbo-pump, as well as cold flows done on the tanks and associated plumbing paid off in a very smooth integration. The start sequence with the turbo-pump is actually more benign for the thrust chamber assembly than the horizontal test stand, where the chamber is pressure fed and receives a slam start.
With an improved fuel manifold under construction (the old design cracked during testing), this clears the way to enter the engine qualification program, which is somewhat analogous to the beta test period for software. We know the engine works, we just need to make sure it always works and intend to put in the time to ensure that’s true.
Merlin is not just the main engine for Falcon I, but will also serve as the main engines for Falcon V, so it’s all the more important and worth the investment to ensure that the engine is rock solid reliable. However, we are sufficiently confident at this point that we have enough engines in the manufacturing loop for both Falcon I and the first flight of Falcon V. First firing of five integrated engines on flight tanks for Falcon V is scheduled for early 2005.
Merlin integrated engine firing video
Thrust Frame
The engine thrust frame weight has come in significantly better than our initial baseline for Falcon I. This is due in part to switching from steel to high strength titanium and in part to a better design. Although we are spending more than planned on this piece of equipment, we expect to be able to reuse it essentially forever (i.e. thousands of flights), so long as the stage itself is recovered.
The corner fittings are precision machined and then welded under argon to the gun drilled tubes. The whole frame only weighs 74.8 lbs and is shown below going through structural qualification. We loaded it to 150,000 lbs (almost twice maximum flight load) in the axial direction and applied max gimbal and TVC loads. Nine limit and ultimate load cycles were applied with no indications of yield (strains all returned to zero).
Structures
As several studies have shown, there are really two reasons why launch vehicles fail – it’s either engines or separation events. This makes sense, because failure tends to occur when there is a change of state. Engines are in constant change and obviously a separation event is a pretty significant change of state.
Fairing Separation
Our fairing is a biconic, rib-stiffened aluminum structure with a space grade cork ablative on the nose for thermal protection and non-outgassing sound blankets on the inside. The choice of biconic was a balance between ease of hypersonic flow separation prediction and ease of manufacture.
For a separation system, we use dual-initiated, non-explosive separation nuts to hold the halves together. When these fire, a pair of pneumatic pushers rotate each half over a partial hinge, resulting in a very precise separation arc that ensures neither the payload nor the rocket will be touched by the departing fairing. Since there are no explosive bolts used here and the separation itself is gentle, no meaningful shock load is imparted to the avionics or satellite payload.
Fairing separation video (employing a high speed camera and strobe light)
Stage Separation
The stage separation test incorporates the Falcon interstage as a “mass simulator”. Shock accelerometers were placed at the separation plane to measure the shock produced during the event. Additional shock accelerometers were used on the interstage skin in order to measure shock attenuation across vehicle joints. In this case, we do use comparatively high shock explosive bolts, as we can’t yet obtain the non-explosive separation nuts with sufficient strength to hold the stages together under maximum load. However, there is nothing close to the separation plane that is shock sensitive, so this doesn’t affect our payload environment.
The test proved that the stage separation system functions properly and produces a more than adequate impulse to clear the second stage engine from the first stage during flight. We’ve also tested separation with an offset center of mass and one of the separation bolts firing late and all results are positive. If the second stage engine nozzle does hit the interstage on exit, the worst that will happen is that the niobium nozzle will be dented and immediately undent upon ignition. We chose a refractory metal nozzle over a carbon-carbon nozzle for exactly that reason. The latter will crack like a coffee cup on impact (a la the Shuttle wing leading edge).
Stage Separation Video
Avionics, Guidance and Control
As part of the stage separation test, we were also able to test much of the flight avionics, including the flight computer, power relays, wiring harness and inertial measurement unit (IMU). The IMU was mounted on the interstage, providing a very accurate measure of acceleration in all six axes and showing no ill effects from the shock event.
The red relay boards pictured below are the computer's interface to the rest of the rocket (arranged in theater seating). The computer controlling the rocket is the green board at the lower left. We are not 100% certain, but this is probably the most powerful rocket flight computer in the world, since it is the most recently designed and the only one to use current 21st century technology. It is certainly much more powerful than what’s used on the Space Shuttle.
The flight relay boards (FRBs) are the arms, legs, eyes and ears of the flight computer, doing things like issuing the deploy command to the payload, collecting data from the IMU, issuing commands to the pressure controllers, collecting analog sensor data, actuating valves and firing the stage separation bolts. The aluminum enclosure on the upper left houses the boards and the shock mounted cage on the right is what holds them in the deck.
Relay boards, shock mounts and flight computer
We also completed the antenna pattern test at EDO using a radio true mockup of the avionics bay and surrounding sections. The rocket is truly a flying radio station, with two C-band, four S-band, two UHF and two GPS antennas, as well as a beacon antenna on the first stage for location by the recovery ship.
EDO antenna test
In the last few months we also completed design, fabrication and testing of our lightweight electro-mechanical thrust vector control system for the upper stage. For our first stage, we use Moog hydraulic cylinders, but could not find a suitable unit at reasonable cost for the upper stage and were forced to build our own.
This has worked out well as the whole actuator, including motor, heat sink, gearbox, position sensors and attachments weighs only 5.25 lbs (less than even the most expensive alternative) and is built in-line. It is capable of moving a 7500 lbf rocket engine at 4 inches per second with 800 lbs of force.
Upper stage actuator in the thrust vector control test stand
Example of Blue Origin update:
Flight Test - Goddard Low Altitude Mission
Accomplishing this mission will take a long time, and we’re working on it methodically. We believe in incremental improvement and in keeping investments at a pace that’s sustainable. Slow and steady is the way to achieve results, and we do not kid ourselves into thinking this will get easier as we go along. Smaller, more frequent steps drive a faster rate of learning, help us maintain focus, and give each of us an opportunity to see our latest work fly sooner.
Our first objective is developing New Shepard, a vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle designed to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital journey into space. On the morning of November 13, 2006, we launched and landed Goddard - a first development vehicle in the New Shepard program. The launch was both useful and fun. Many friends and family came to watch the launch and support the team.
As an aside, all the images and videos on this website are served by Amazon’s Simple Storage Service. S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve data from anywhere on the web. It gives any software developer access to the same scalable data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own websites. If you’re interested, you can learn more at aws.amazon.com. (Yes, that was a brief sales pitch for Amazon Web Services, and now I return you to rockets.)
As I said above, Blue Origin is actively hiring. We are particularly looking for experienced propulsion engineers and experienced turbomachinery engineers, as well as a senior leader to head our turbopump group. Folks with turbopump or propulsion experience on large, modern, cryogenic engines such as the RS-68 are of particular interest.
Another high priority for us is an experienced leader for our structures team. Structures experience on large, modern vehicles such as Delta IV or Atlas V is of particular interest.
We are searching to fill other positions as well. Please check out our careers page on this website. Feel free to send a note and resume to our head of recruiting, Walt McCleery at [email protected].
I cannot say enough about the team we already have. They are hard working and ingenious and experienced. It’s a sincere pleasure for me to witness, and I’m grateful to them.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
Update
June 2004 - July 2004
(Note: Subscribers to the email list receive the update a few days earlier than it is posted on the website. Email address privacy is always respected.)
Public Viewing of the Maiden Launch
The maiden launch will be open to the public and we will post the exact date on our website in the coming months. Oddly enough, the Air Force designated viewing location from which you will be able to see the Falcon I launch is called “Hawk’s Nest” (no relation to us) and is accessed off of Hwy 1 on Azalea Lane near Vandenberg.
Our current schedule calls for transferring the rocket to the pad in September, performing a short duration vehicle hold down firing and launching as soon thereafter as possible, without compromising safety or reliability. We will not launch until all engineers are two thumbs up, so that date may get pushed back.
Since this is a high energy, orbital flight, Air Force range safety has a minimum keep out radius of at least 2 miles. However, Falcon I is seven stories tall with an 85,000 lb vacuum thrust engine and a long, bright LOX/RP flame tail, so the launch will definitely be worth seeing.
Launch Manifest
Below is our expected launch schedule. The “contracted” launches are those with a signed contract and for which we have received a deposit. Tentative means we have had serious, in-depth discussions with the potential customer and believe that there is a greater than fifty percent likelihood of sale. As you might expect, we have had many discussions with potential customers that are waiting for at least one successful launch before committing. Those are not mentioned here.
Customer Launch Date
Vehicle
Departure Point
Status
US Defense Dept Q4 2004 Falcon I Vandenberg Contracted
US Defense Dept
Q2 2005 Falcon I Marshall Islands Tentative
International Government Q4 2005 Falcon I Marshall Islands Contracted
Bigelow Aerospace Q4 2005 Falcon V Vandenberg Contracted
International Commercial Q3 2006 Falcon V Cape Canaveral Tentative
Kistler Sole Source Contract
As some who have been following this matter will note, the General Accounting Office (GAO) agreed with SpaceX that the Kistler sole source contract should not have been granted. It is my understanding that NASA has not yet decided their next course of action. To be clear, my concern with the contract was primarily the very negative market signal that issuing a large and (as the GAO has ruled) unjustified sole source contract to a bankrupt company would send. I think it would be a good thing if Kistler emerged from bankruptcy and continued to pursue their launch vehicle development, albeit only on a fair playing field.
The best destination for those now unallocated tax dollars is open access, performance based contracts (a.k.a. prizes) under the NASA Centennial Prize program. If that is done, it will do wonders to invigorate commercial space development and spur new entrants into the orbital space launch business, just as the X Prize has done for sub-orbital.
SpaceX Launch Pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base
A lot of work has been done getting our launch pad ready at Vandenberg. Although we were able to start with the existing concrete foundation of an old Atlas II pad, there was literally nothing else in place. Compared to other launch pads at Vandenberg, we don’t require much, but there is still a lot of work to do to have a professional launch infrastructure.
We do not use a permanent tower on the pad, employing instead our mobile erector/launcher platform. This is stored in a protected environment when not in use, so is not subject to weather damage and corrosion. This makes our maintenance costs very low and minimizes time spent on the launch pad, which in turn reduces our launch operations costs. We can prepare the entire rocket for launch in the controlled environment of our factory, rather than do final assembly at the launch site.
Right now, all the electrical and communications wiring is in process of being installed and connected to the base grid. In addition, there is a lot of plumbing work to connect liquid oxygen, RP-1 kerosene, helium and nitrogen. These feed into the quick disconnect umbilicals on the rocket, which detach as the rocket lifts off. The water deluge for heat and noise suppression on launch will just use standard base water pressure, as Falcon I doesn’t need anything more to meet specifications.
The CAD solid model below shows what Falcon I will look like on the pad with the mobile launcher, before it is erected for flight:
Falcon I before flight
Here you can see an actual picture of Space Launch Complex - Three West (SLC-3W), our home at Vandenberg, under construction. Lockheed, our next door neighbor at SLC-3E, is preparing their Atlas V pad for launch. They have been good, courteous neighbors and hopefully Lockheed sees us the same way.
“Pad sweet pad”
A tremendous amount of progress was made on the technology development front, as described below. Major milestones include: Merlin fully integrated engine firing with flight tanks, stage separation tested, fairing separation tested and most of the flight avionics & antenna pattern tested.
Elon
TECHNICAL UPDATES
Propulsion
Merlin Integrated Engine Test
After many delays and a few setbacks, we have fired Merlin (our main engine) in the fully integrated configuration, with both the thrust chamber assembly, turbo-pump and gas generator attached to a set of flight tanks. This is one of the biggest milestones before launch and the culmination of a tremendous amount of work by the propulsion team.
All the unit testing done on the thrust chamber, turbo-pump, as well as cold flows done on the tanks and associated plumbing paid off in a very smooth integration. The start sequence with the turbo-pump is actually more benign for the thrust chamber assembly than the horizontal test stand, where the chamber is pressure fed and receives a slam start.
With an improved fuel manifold under construction (the old design cracked during testing), this clears the way to enter the engine qualification program, which is somewhat analogous to the beta test period for software. We know the engine works, we just need to make sure it always works and intend to put in the time to ensure that’s true.
Merlin is not just the main engine for Falcon I, but will also serve as the main engines for Falcon V, so it’s all the more important and worth the investment to ensure that the engine is rock solid reliable. However, we are sufficiently confident at this point that we have enough engines in the manufacturing loop for both Falcon I and the first flight of Falcon V. First firing of five integrated engines on flight tanks for Falcon V is scheduled for early 2005.
Merlin integrated engine firing video
Thrust Frame
The engine thrust frame weight has come in significantly better than our initial baseline for Falcon I. This is due in part to switching from steel to high strength titanium and in part to a better design. Although we are spending more than planned on this piece of equipment, we expect to be able to reuse it essentially forever (i.e. thousands of flights), so long as the stage itself is recovered.
The corner fittings are precision machined and then welded under argon to the gun drilled tubes. The whole frame only weighs 74.8 lbs and is shown below going through structural qualification. We loaded it to 150,000 lbs (almost twice maximum flight load) in the axial direction and applied max gimbal and TVC loads. Nine limit and ultimate load cycles were applied with no indications of yield (strains all returned to zero).
Structures
As several studies have shown, there are really two reasons why launch vehicles fail – it’s either engines or separation events. This makes sense, because failure tends to occur when there is a change of state. Engines are in constant change and obviously a separation event is a pretty significant change of state.
Fairing Separation
Our fairing is a biconic, rib-stiffened aluminum structure with a space grade cork ablative on the nose for thermal protection and non-outgassing sound blankets on the inside. The choice of biconic was a balance between ease of hypersonic flow separation prediction and ease of manufacture.
For a separation system, we use dual-initiated, non-explosive separation nuts to hold the halves together. When these fire, a pair of pneumatic pushers rotate each half over a partial hinge, resulting in a very precise separation arc that ensures neither the payload nor the rocket will be touched by the departing fairing. Since there are no explosive bolts used here and the separation itself is gentle, no meaningful shock load is imparted to the avionics or satellite payload.
Fairing separation video (employing a high speed camera and strobe light)
Stage Separation
The stage separation test incorporates the Falcon interstage as a “mass simulator”. Shock accelerometers were placed at the separation plane to measure the shock produced during the event. Additional shock accelerometers were used on the interstage skin in order to measure shock attenuation across vehicle joints. In this case, we do use comparatively high shock explosive bolts, as we can’t yet obtain the non-explosive separation nuts with sufficient strength to hold the stages together under maximum load. However, there is nothing close to the separation plane that is shock sensitive, so this doesn’t affect our payload environment.
The test proved that the stage separation system functions properly and produces a more than adequate impulse to clear the second stage engine from the first stage during flight. We’ve also tested separation with an offset center of mass and one of the separation bolts firing late and all results are positive. If the second stage engine nozzle does hit the interstage on exit, the worst that will happen is that the niobium nozzle will be dented and immediately undent upon ignition. We chose a refractory metal nozzle over a carbon-carbon nozzle for exactly that reason. The latter will crack like a coffee cup on impact (a la the Shuttle wing leading edge).
Stage Separation Video
Avionics, Guidance and Control
As part of the stage separation test, we were also able to test much of the flight avionics, including the flight computer, power relays, wiring harness and inertial measurement unit (IMU). The IMU was mounted on the interstage, providing a very accurate measure of acceleration in all six axes and showing no ill effects from the shock event.
The red relay boards pictured below are the computer's interface to the rest of the rocket (arranged in theater seating). The computer controlling the rocket is the green board at the lower left. We are not 100% certain, but this is probably the most powerful rocket flight computer in the world, since it is the most recently designed and the only one to use current 21st century technology. It is certainly much more powerful than what’s used on the Space Shuttle.
The flight relay boards (FRBs) are the arms, legs, eyes and ears of the flight computer, doing things like issuing the deploy command to the payload, collecting data from the IMU, issuing commands to the pressure controllers, collecting analog sensor data, actuating valves and firing the stage separation bolts. The aluminum enclosure on the upper left houses the boards and the shock mounted cage on the right is what holds them in the deck.
Relay boards, shock mounts and flight computer
We also completed the antenna pattern test at EDO using a radio true mockup of the avionics bay and surrounding sections. The rocket is truly a flying radio station, with two C-band, four S-band, two UHF and two GPS antennas, as well as a beacon antenna on the first stage for location by the recovery ship.
EDO antenna test
In the last few months we also completed design, fabrication and testing of our lightweight electro-mechanical thrust vector control system for the upper stage. For our first stage, we use Moog hydraulic cylinders, but could not find a suitable unit at reasonable cost for the upper stage and were forced to build our own.
This has worked out well as the whole actuator, including motor, heat sink, gearbox, position sensors and attachments weighs only 5.25 lbs (less than even the most expensive alternative) and is built in-line. It is capable of moving a 7500 lbf rocket engine at 4 inches per second with 800 lbs of force.
Upper stage actuator in the thrust vector control test stand
Example of Blue Origin update:
Flight Test - Goddard Low Altitude Mission
Accomplishing this mission will take a long time, and we’re working on it methodically. We believe in incremental improvement and in keeping investments at a pace that’s sustainable. Slow and steady is the way to achieve results, and we do not kid ourselves into thinking this will get easier as we go along. Smaller, more frequent steps drive a faster rate of learning, help us maintain focus, and give each of us an opportunity to see our latest work fly sooner.
Our first objective is developing New Shepard, a vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle designed to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital journey into space. On the morning of November 13, 2006, we launched and landed Goddard - a first development vehicle in the New Shepard program. The launch was both useful and fun. Many friends and family came to watch the launch and support the team.
As an aside, all the images and videos on this website are served by Amazon’s Simple Storage Service. S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve data from anywhere on the web. It gives any software developer access to the same scalable data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own websites. If you’re interested, you can learn more at aws.amazon.com. (Yes, that was a brief sales pitch for Amazon Web Services, and now I return you to rockets.)
As I said above, Blue Origin is actively hiring. We are particularly looking for experienced propulsion engineers and experienced turbomachinery engineers, as well as a senior leader to head our turbopump group. Folks with turbopump or propulsion experience on large, modern, cryogenic engines such as the RS-68 are of particular interest.
Another high priority for us is an experienced leader for our structures team. Structures experience on large, modern vehicles such as Delta IV or Atlas V is of particular interest.
We are searching to fill other positions as well. Please check out our careers page on this website. Feel free to send a note and resume to our head of recruiting, Walt McCleery at [email protected].
I cannot say enough about the team we already have. They are hard working and ingenious and experienced. It’s a sincere pleasure for me to witness, and I’m grateful to them.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
Nikxice
Active Member
Quoting from a Thursday article in Forbes, "While there were no humans onboard on its most recent mission, the rocket did carry thousands of postcards that children had written as part of the “Space Mail” campaign from Club For The Future, a nonprofit funded by Blue Origin. The organization is open to students, parents and teachers, with a mission to give children affordable, frequent and reliable access to space in order to foster a future generation of space explorers. The postcards will be sent back to the children after their voyage to space—with a Blue Origin stamp newly affixed. Bezos is shown stamping a few of the postcards in the video. “Alright, that’s a success guys. That’s beautiful,” Bezos says in the video.
Well at least he's doing something for the children. Okay, it is pretty easy to pick on Jeff. Maybe next December he can have the kids write letters to Santa. While barely touching the edge of space, New Shepard could once again experience success in 2020.
Hey Jeff if you're listening, were this guy was still alive he'd be embarrassed for you.
He'd either volunteer to fly it now or ask you to change the name. Perhaps the Astros in Derry, NH will do that for him.
Thanks for posting! I had never read those early SpaceX updates, they sure provided a lot of detail. Similar to what Tesla did in the early days. It’s interesting that as both companies got well known, the detailed updates stopped flowing. I am guessing that detailed updates stopped mainly due to competitive pressure. Ie I would bet that competitors would pick apart the updates and use it as a weapon against SpaceX sales. “Look, they didn’t use $1m space grade actuators! Don’t trust your payload with them!”
Also, love the fact that they built their own actuator! I would venture to guess that the reason SpaceX can recover their stages and no one else can is that they do in fact build many erstwhile “off the shelf” components themselves. That actuator, for example, probably gets a lot hotter than any other “space grade” actuator due to propulsive landings. So SpaceX can build an actuator that can handle that kind of unique stress. That probably isn’t actually available off the shelf because no one else does what SpaceX does.
Tesla infamously ran into a similar problem with their earliest Roadsters in that they couldn’t find a 2 speed transmission that could handle the huge torque of an electric motor. Likewise they couldn’t even find an off the shelf electric motor that had the right specs.
When you push the envelope, you’ll find you need to build a lot in house rather than buy. It’s probably THE reason why SpaceX and Tesla are so far ahead of their competition. Their competition is still mostly about buying off the shelf parts and integrating, while Elon in sources at the drop of a hat. And ironically, a lot of the time, Elon has found it to be cheaper to do so as well as better.
Also, love the fact that they built their own actuator! I would venture to guess that the reason SpaceX can recover their stages and no one else can is that they do in fact build many erstwhile “off the shelf” components themselves. That actuator, for example, probably gets a lot hotter than any other “space grade” actuator due to propulsive landings. So SpaceX can build an actuator that can handle that kind of unique stress. That probably isn’t actually available off the shelf because no one else does what SpaceX does.
Tesla infamously ran into a similar problem with their earliest Roadsters in that they couldn’t find a 2 speed transmission that could handle the huge torque of an electric motor. Likewise they couldn’t even find an off the shelf electric motor that had the right specs.
When you push the envelope, you’ll find you need to build a lot in house rather than buy. It’s probably THE reason why SpaceX and Tesla are so far ahead of their competition. Their competition is still mostly about buying off the shelf parts and integrating, while Elon in sources at the drop of a hat. And ironically, a lot of the time, Elon has found it to be cheaper to do so as well as better.
BO is making plenty of advancements over the course of their launches, its just that those advancements are slower, more conservative, and less self evident than SpaceX's advancements over the years.
That BO is slower, more conservative, and less communicative than SpaceX is old news. Time to move on.
I don't see how a TLDR trying to prove a point that nobody is arguing against is at all relevant here. Everyone knows Elon prefers the spotlight far more than most people from corporate America, basically everyone in the space industry, and certainly everyone at BO. We're all to benefit from that personality/approach manifesting as an entire company culture of being unprecedentedly frank and open with the public.
But again, no news here. Move on.
e-FTW
New electron smell
Absolutely.
But he will also not hesitate to outsource when it is better. Case in point: the carbon-fiber Falcon 9 landing legs. All-American Racing now makes them, “they could do it better than us” Elon said. He also said they would love to outsource more: Elon Musk - SpaceX version
Point is, it is not a black-or-white, all or nothing approach. When off-the-shelf caches up or is proven better, they go for it.
Yes indeed. Carbon fiber is notoriously difficult to manufacture, but there is no choice for race cars. You have to use carbon fiber. And they build lots of race cars since they get damaged so often, so there is a path to continuous improvement for such a manufacturer.
Nit pick: this wasn't an off the shelf thing, it was an outsourcing thing. No one makes off the shelf rocket landing legs
e-FTW
New electron smell
Give me a break, it’s Saturday!Nit pick: this wasn't an off the shelf thing, it was an outsourcing thing. No one makes off the shelf rocket landing legs
Since they do a launch every six months or so, this means it's another two years before they send up customers.
Michael Sheetz on Twitter
I suppose it's possible that SpaceX does a true orbital tourism launch before either Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic does a suborbital launch with customers.
BO is pushing some of its workers into breaking quarantine and they aren't happy about it.
Jeff Bezos’ space company is pressuring employees to launch a tourist rocket during the pandemic
Jeff Bezos’ space company is pressuring employees to launch a tourist rocket during the pandemic
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