Blue Origin reusable rocket landing.

pretty impressive. they landed it right where they wanted to too. but it isn't re-usable until they actually are able to re-use it.
 
:cool:
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Well, they are quite a ways past that first step now. They have made a huge amount of progress.
 
That looked like a CGI representation of what they WANT it to do... not footage of what they've already accomplished. :shrug:
 
Pretty damned impressive. I'm excited about the interest that the private sector has in furthering our space travel aspirations and the huge advances they are making. It won't be long until NASA as we know is completely dead. It remain as an Agency, but they will be out of the space game completely except for continuing to support and maintain pre-existing projects.

When NASA had a virtually unlimited budget, they did truly amazing things at a pace of progress that was astounding, but they've been a lame duck for a long, long time now. They absolutely paved the way and laid the groundwork for the next leap in progress. They get high praise for that. These private companies owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to NASA and the many lives lost chasing stars. Now it's their turn to grab the baton.
 
Disagree about NASA, though they have plenty of private sector competition. It's a great time to be in aerospace.

We were discussing the Blue Origin flight at work yesterday, and while impressive it is a bit misleading. Launching up to the edge of space and coming back down is a LOT easier than actually getting on orbit and returning. It takes a lot more power and fuel to attain orbit than just popping up and floating back down. There isn't really a fair comparison to what they are doing and what Space-X has been trying. They are 2 completely different vehicles. Space-x will actually lift a payload into orbit before returning, while Blue origin is a zero-G carnival ride nibbling at the edge of space. Still pretty fucking cool.

One of my co-workers went to grad school with a guy who is now working for Escape Dynamics developing a launch vehicle that uses a phased microwave array to heat hydrogen to create thrust



Nikola Tesla would be proud.
 
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335clone said:
Disagree about NASA, though they have plenty of private sector competition. It's a great time to be in aerospace.

We were discussing the Blue Origin flight at work yesterday, and while impressive it is a bit misleading. Launching up to the edge of space and coming back down is a LOT easier than actually getting on orbit and returning. It takes a lot more power and fuel to attain orbit than just popping up and floating back down. There isn't really a fair comparison to what they are doing and what Space-X has been trying. They are 2 completely different vehicles. Space-x will actually lift a payload into orbit before returning, while Blue origin is a zero-G carnival ride nibbling at the edge of space. Still pretty fucking cool.

One of my co-workers went to grad school with a guy who is now working for Escape Dynamics developing a launch vehicle that uses a phased microwave array to heat hydrogen to create thrust



Nikola Tesla would be proud.
Click to expand...

That is super cool.

My point about NASA is more of a resignation about the increasingly smaller budget that is very unlikely to ever swing back toward what it once was. It isn't that I don't think they can't continue to be the pioneering force, it's that they are hamstrung by the lack of funding. The private sector is our best bet to get beyond the Moon with a manned spacecraft. That is, unless we want to wait a century for NASA to scrape together the dough.
 
335clone said:
Disagree about NASA, though they have plenty of private sector competition. It's a great time to be in aerospace.

We were discussing the Blue Origin flight at work yesterday, and while impressive it is a bit misleading. Launching up to the edge of space and coming back down is a LOT easier than actually getting on orbit and returning. It takes a lot more power and fuel to attain orbit than just popping up and floating back down. There isn't really a fair comparison to what they are doing and what Space-X has been trying. They are 2 completely different vehicles. Space-x will actually lift a payload into orbit before returning, while Blue origin is a zero-G carnival ride nibbling at the edge of space. Still pretty fucking cool.

One of my co-workers went to grad school with a guy who is now working for Escape Dynamics developing a launch vehicle that uses a phased microwave array to heat hydrogen to create thrust



Nikola Tesla would be proud.
Click to expand...


My first thought when seeing the Blue Origin video was that it was a huge step toward a multi-stage rocket where the biggest stage returns to Earth for reuse, the second stage gets you into orbit but is lost, and the payload makes orbit and is able to return safely.

I don't know if that's their goal. I just assumed that that would be the next logical step.
 
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NASA has always struggled with educating the masses about the countless spin-offs that each of us enjoy every day. Add the fact that it is difficult to get decades long programs funded by a congress that can't see past their current election cycle.
 
OGG said:
That is super cool.

My point about NASA is more of a resignation about the increasingly smaller budget that is very unlikely to ever swing back toward what it once was. It isn't that I don't think they can't continue to be the pioneering force, it's that they are hamstrung by the lack of funding. The private sector is our best bet to get beyond the Moon with a manned spacecraft. That is, unless we want to wait a century for NASA to scrape together the dough.
Click to expand...

Clearly you are correct about their shrinking budgets and private competition, but they still play a pivotal role in exploration as well as closer to home issues such as tracking space junk. The private sector relies on NASA and the Military to track quite a bit of crap on orbit besides everyones satellites.

http://stuffin.space/
 
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335clone said:
Clearly you are correct about their shrinking budgets and private competition, but they still play a pivotal role in exploration as well as closer to home issues such as tracking space junk. The private sector relies on NASA and the Military to track quite a bit of crap on orbit besides everyones satellites.

http://stuffin.space/
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I was referring to when I wrote that they will be limited to continuing to support pre-existing programs. They will always be the guys who track the space junk, study the atmosphere, fly into hurricanes etc, but the days of them designing and building (via dozens or hundreds of contractors) the next generation of space vehicles are over. No more calling the boys at Morton Thiokol (do they still exist?) and telling them to build a bigger rocket motor.

P.S.

Just Wiki'd Morton Thiokol, it still sort of exists, but since 1997 it has been bounced around like a superball in a round room.
 
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