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Nikxice
Active Member
Congrats to BO. This time it only took them 3 months to turnaround versus the usually 6 to 9. Still needs some work. Judging from that landing if they'd been aiming for the deck of OCISLY their booster would've ended up in the drink.
adiggs
Well-Known Member
Straight up awesome on the BO launch and land.
Looks like they're aiming for the ultimate roller coaster ride with that - not too hard for me to imagine being onboard for that flight sometime in the future. Another exciting bit of progress on this space thing
Looks like they're aiming for the ultimate roller coaster ride with that - not too hard for me to imagine being onboard for that flight sometime in the future. Another exciting bit of progress on this space thing
It bugs me that their telemetry is in miles per hour and feet AGL, for some reason.
I think BO is focused on the American viewing public with New Shepard. The AGL is for getting above the Karmann line. Failure at achieving that means you don't get your astronaut rating. Which is a big part of what you are paying for.
adiggs
Well-Known Member
That makes sense.
Have they talked at about the service they're aiming to provide and approximately what price they're aiming for?
Interesting thing, at least for me, about watching that latest launch and land personally: I can suddenly totally see myself on that amusement park ride at some point in my life. The idea that I might ever get into space, even if only to kiss the sky and come right back down, was unthinkable even a few years ago. Now - it seems downright reasonable.
And THAT I think, is also a really exciting stage in the development of space. Not so much for me personally, but the idea that getting into space is something that doesn't take 3 graduate degrees and a few decades of dedicated pursuit to both become astronaut certified as well as actually getting onto a mission crew. Making space more real will, I think, also make it something more people can follow and get excited about.
Even if most of us just get to kiss the sky.
adiggs
Well-Known Member
Ooh! If the ride will take more like 10 people than 2, we could arrange a TMC get together and go to space together! Wouldn't THAT be a gas
That's exactly the way to frame this kind of product (same with Virgin). Whether people know it or not, most people don't actually want to be in space, they really just want the launch and the view. This kind of thing checks those boxes with a pretty low risk what-goes-up-must-come-down profile.
Certainly one could contest that the view from orbit is a material improvement over one that's just really high, but one would also have to concede that little league and MLB are more than just different versions of the same game.
So a billion dollar program to come up with a Disney ride on steroids'? I understand this is an engineering feat, but all that to go up and come down straight? Or are they planning an orbital flight too? send satellites? It seems the tiny electron program has achieved so much more.
Also how far is the landing site from the launch site? How did it get the horizontal vector? Did the booster tilt at an angle, like all orbital launches?
Also how far is the landing site from the launch site? How did it get the horizontal vector? Did the booster tilt at an angle, like all orbital launches?
Wish they showed telemetry also, perhaps as an LED display inside the cabin. You know like how they show the speed in high speed trains. That constant chime, throughout was annoying. And that dude was sleeping anyway and missed the fun completely.
Why not have a plush toy to show the zero gravity floating? Just takes a bit of imagination.
Why not have a plush toy to show the zero gravity floating? Just takes a bit of imagination.
BO made a big deal about spinning the capsule to showcase a full view of the world below. That didn't seem to happen until after the capsule was released. I'd think seeing the world/terrain spinning below you right after launch would be the most fun. I suppose that means having the rocket spin - which might be problematical. Though I thought they said that is what was supposed to happen.
favo
P3D+ owner
I had exactly the same thoughts. They should show altitude, speed, g-force and some of the major milestones like separation and chute deploy.
They may not be going the same speed as SpaceX (the world 'round, there are few entities in any discipline/industry that are), but similar to the Falcon program providing valuable direct and indirect inputs into Starship, NS is doing the same for NG in areas like:
--BE-3 (the second stage motor on NG)
--Landing algos/scenerios/variables
--Validating/iterating design/production concepts
--Process related development and vetting (equipment processing, launch script, etc)
As far as an amusement ride, honestly, if they think this is a product (service?) that can generate the right amount of revenue, good for them. It is at least an order of magnitude more plausible/likely than an orbital alternative (and probably more) and, again, checks off the right boxes for the vast majority of people who would be interested in such an experience.
Its surprising that they don't have live onboard feeds (unless I missed it--only scrubbed back through the replay to quasi-confirm). Something interactive could be really cool where folks can tile their own views, maybe even including a plug in for VR headsets. Watching a heavily pixelated single (more or less) camera view with a near featureless Windows 95 era progress bar climbing and descending the left side of the frame is rather uninspiring...
