[Technology] Jeff Bezos' space tourism company completes test flight

[lioneatszebra]

Jeff Bezos' space tourism company completes test flight
From USA Today

A private space company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos launched a capsule to the edge of the atmosphere this week, a significant first step toward its goal of launching humans to space.

"Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return," Bezos said in an announcement posted on Blue Origin's website.

Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle launched Wednesday from western Texas to an altitude of more than 58 miles, the first test flight of a system designed to fly up to six space tourists on suborbital flights offering minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth from space.

New Shepard is a precursor to a larger orbital rocket and spacecraft the company plans to develop and potentially launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

As soon as this month, the company could announce which site it has chosen for launches of the larger rocket Bezos referred to as "New Shepard's sibling, her 'Very Big Brother,'" planned by the end of the decade. Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is known to be one of the options being considered along with sites in at least two other states.

Video of Wednesday's test flight showed a 60-foot booster powered by Blue Origin's own BE-3 engine rocket into blue sky above the company's private West Texas launch range, at a peak speed three times the speed of sound.

After reaching 307,000 feet â€" about four miles below the internationally recognized boundary of space â€" the unmanned capsule descended, deployed three parachutes and touched down softly on a desert landscape, apparently not far from where it launched.

Bezos, who watched from a control room, reported the New Shepard's engine, guidance systems and the crew capsule's separation all working flawlessly.

However, the test did not go perfectly. Blue Origin's goal is to land and reuse its boosters, but Bezos said the test flight's propulsion module was lost Wednesday when its hydraulic system lost pressure during descent.

Blue Origin's test flight video did not show what happened to the booster. Bezos said two more are being built, and "we'll be ready to fly again soon."

Many more test flights are planned before New Shepard flies with people, and Blue Origin may still be years from flying customers from Texas â€" for prices not yet disclosed.

"There's extensive flight testing of the vehicle before we'll go put a human passenger on it," company President Rob Meyerson told reporters last month. "And then significant testing of that type before we go put a customer on board."

On Friday, Blue Origin's redesigned Web site actively marketed an astronaut experience.

"From arrival at our desert launch site to the heart-pounding emotions at launch to weightlessness and the perfect stillness of space â€" be a pioneer in the next era of human spaceflight," the site reads.

New Shepard is designed to carry up to six astronauts, or a smaller number along with scientific payloads. Meyerson said suborbital flights would last 10 to 15 minutes, including about four minutes of weightlessness.

"Any time a new space system is proven it's a cause for celebration by the industry, the country and the world at large. This is a wonderful achievement for us all," said Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida."The launch, altitude achieved, capsule separation and landing is a huge accomplishment."

At least two other U.S. companies, Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace, hope to fly commercial passengers in the next few years on suborbital flights launched and landed from runways. XCOR plans flights from Kennedy Space Center's former shuttle runway.

In addition to working toward suborbital flights, Blue Origin is developing the liquid methane-fueled BE-4 engine, producing 550,000 pounds of thrust, for its larger, orbital rocket.

The company has partnered with United Launch Alliance to provide that engine for the next-generation rocket ULA is designing to replace its current Atlas V and Delta IV launchers, part of a makeover intended to make ULA more competitive with SpaceX.

ULA and SpaceX both expect to launch astronauts to the International Space Station in the next few years, but their core business now is launching commercial and government satellites.

Blue Origin's focus is on human spaceflight with a goal of dramatically lowering its cost and expanding access to space.

"Earth, this blue planet, in all its beauty, is just our starting point," the narrator of a promotional Blue Origin video says. "Now is the time to open the promise of space to all, and lay the way for generations to come."