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There is a clear difference in the broadcast tone compared to SpaceX. SpaceX is about teaching people about what they are seeing and the excitement comes across as very real. These broadcasts have more of a selling feel to them. Which makes sense since they will be selling rides on the rocket and capsule..
It seems that Blue Origin has successfully performed VTOL of reusable rockets, beating SpaceX to land a used rocket.
Jeff Bezos beats Elon Musks SpaceX in the reusable rocket race
One point of note is the much slower speed of the Blue Origin rocket - could the BO rocket deliver payloads at the lower speeds noted in the article? Or was that just a test and they'd have to go much faster?
To me, it would be logical that spacecraft would need the faster speeds to drive payloads and that the slower speed couldn't be used for anything other than a test?
(Asking as a completely clueless but interested observer...)
Going straight up, you don't need any particular velocity. If you are prepared to waste a lot of fuel, and accelerate slowly, you can get there without even breaking the speed of sound. I think (but haven't checked) that 5,000 mph is the velocity you need if you want to coast all the rest of the way. From the (unedited) live video, which had the small window with velocity in it, I don't think New Shepard ever got anywhere near 5000 mph (again from flaky memory).The New Shepard is designed to "just barely" make it into space. For about 5 minutes, right at the top of its trajectory. That is, of course, a major accomplishment, and they should be justifiably proud. They should also be proud that their rocket survived separation from the capsule at Max-Q (the period where aerodynamic forces on the stack are highest, finished its trip to space and then landed safely. And Jeff has indeed flown the same rocket 5 times in a row, while Elon has recovered 5 rockets but has yet to refly any of them.
But -- To get into space, you only need to achieve 5,000 miles per hour straight up. To get into orbit, you need to do 17,500 mph up and sideways. The rocket equation delta vee = Ve * ln(Mo/Mf) says that Blue Origin's mass ratio is about 2.1 -- about half the mass of the stack is fuel. For SpaceX, the ratio is over 13 -- only about 7% of the total mass is rocket and payload, the other 93% is fuel. It's a completely different degree of difficulty.
Density of Propellant.
LH 70.8 kg/m^3
CH-4 423 kg/m^3
RP-1 820 kg/m^3
LOX 1140 kg/m^3
So basically the methane engines on the New Glenn use fuel(Methane CH-4) that is about 50% less dense than the RP1 that F9 uses.
Going straight up, you don't need any particular velocity. If you are prepared to waste a lot of fuel, and accelerate slowly, you can get there without even breaking the speed of sound. I think (but haven't checked) that 5,000 mph is the velocity you need if you want to coast all the rest of the way. From the (unedited) live video, which had the small window with velocity in it, I don't think New Shepard ever got anywhere near 5000 mph (again from flaky memory).
Well done B.O.
2. It would have been a very wild ride inside the capsule when it boosted away from the booster. It was nowhere near as stable as the Dragon 2. That said, in an emergency, the key is to get away and it did that successfully. It looked completely survivable if an emergency had happened. Maybe there is room for improvement in the capsule stability.
Great job.
Interesting to see that BO is going with a different steerable fin design and has fixed fins at the base of the first stage.We got to see the new rocket engine yesterday. So now we get a glimpse of the new Rocket. animated of course:
Seem familiar?
The landing barges use propulsive station-keeping. If they are holding position in a location with a significant current (like the gulf stream), they will leave a wake even if they are stationary relative to GPS.The animation showing the stage landing ship appearing to be moving at the time of the landing was amusing.
Thanks, understood. But would a 5.6mph current produce such a large wake? I wonder. (Source: How fast is the Gulf Stream? )The landing barges use propulsive station-keeping. If they are holding position in a location with a significant current (like the gulf stream), they will leave a wake even if they are stationary relative to GPS.
Interesting to see that BO is going with a different steerable fin design and has fixed fins at the base of the first stage.
The animation showing the stage landing ship appearing to be moving at the time of the landing was amusing.
I applaud their efforts and wish them success. But they are years behind SpaceX.
Thanks, understood. But would a 5.6mph current produce such a large wake? I wonder. (Source: How fast is the Gulf Stream? )