{"id":15617,"date":"2016-04-03T23:52:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T15:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-launches-same-new-shepard-spacecraft-for-third-time\/"},"modified":"2016-04-03T23:52:20","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T15:52:20","slug":"blue-origin-launches-same-new-shepard-spacecraft-for-third-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-launches-same-new-shepard-spacecraft-for-third-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin launches same New Shepard spacecraft for third time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>STORY WRITTEN FOR&nbsp;CBS NEWS&nbsp;&amp; USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YU3J-jKb75g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin launched its reusable New Shepard suborbital spacecraft on its third test flight Saturday, successfully boosting an unpiloted capsule out of the discernible atmosphere for a few minutes of weightlessness before a parachute descent to the company\u2019s West Texas launch site.<\/p>\n<p>The New Shepard booster, meanwhile, plunged back to Earth tail first, re-igniting its hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine at an altitude of just 3,635 feet. The engine quickly throttled up, four landing legs deployed and the rocket settled to a gentle touchdown, according to Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin.<\/p>\n<p>The last-second braking maneuver occurred as planned just six seconds before the rocket otherwise would have crashed into the ground, a deliberate test \u201cpushing the envelope\u201d of performance, Bezos tweeted earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p>In a surprising departure from past practice, Bezos announced plans for the test flight Friday evening, tweeting that the Blue Origin team was \u201cworking to fly again tomorrow. Same vehicle. Third time.\u201d Early Saturday, he provided realtime pre-launch updates via Twitter and then a play-by-play of the flight itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiftoff and New Shepard is climbing to apogee,\u201d he tweeted around 11:18 a.m. EDT (GMT-4). A few moments later he added: \u201cFlawless BE-3 restart and perfect booster landing. CC (crew capsule) chutes deployed.\u201d He then confirmed the capsule\u2019s safe touchdown.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14044\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14044\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14044\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/040216_newshepard_launch1.jpg\" alt=\"Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital rocket and capsule blast off from the company's West Texas flight test facility Saturday. Credit: Blue Origin\" width=\"620\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/040216_newshepard_launch1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/040216_newshepard_launch1-300x183.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital rocket and capsule blast off from the company\u2019s West Texas flight test facility Saturday. Credit: Blue Origin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Later in the day, Blue Origin reported the capsule reached a maximum altitude of 339,138 feet, or 64.2 miles, two miles above the generally accepted-if-somewhat-arbitrary altitude defining the transition from atmospheric flight to space flight.<\/p>\n<p>Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that builds and markets Delta and Atlas heavy-lift rockets, tweeted congratulations, describing Bezos as \u201ca remarkable guy. Earned my respect as a rocket scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reusable New Shepard booster and capsule are designed to lift six passengers at a time on sub-orbital up-and-down flights out of the discernible atmosphere. Once separated from the booster, crew cabin occupants will experience about four minutes of weightlessness before falling back to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe New Shepard capsule\u2019s interior is an ample 530 cubic feet \u2014 offering over 10 times the room Alan Shepard had on his Mercury flight,\u201d Blue Origin says on the company\u2019s web page. \u201cIt seats six astronauts and is large enough for you to float freely and turn weightless somersaults.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the capsule plunges back into the dense lower atmosphere, the crew will experience up to 5 Gs of deceleration before a set of large parachutes deploy to slow and stabilize the capsule. Small retro rockets will fire an instant before touchdown, reducing the landing velocity to a relatively sedate 4 mph.<\/p>\n<p>The New Shepard booster, meanwhile, deploys braking and steering fins as it falls back to Earth, maintaining a stable, tail-down orientation. Then, less than 10 seconds before impact, its BE-3 engine re-ignites to slow the rocket for touchdown on a landing pad near the launch site.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14045\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14045\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14045\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/040216_newshepard_launch2.jpg\" alt=\"The New Shepard booster descends to touchdown after boosting an unpiloted crew capsule to an altitude of 64.2 miles. Credit: Blue Origin\" width=\"620\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/040216_newshepard_launch2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/040216_newshepard_launch2-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14045\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The New Shepard booster descends to touchdown after boosting an unpiloted crew capsule to an altitude of 64.2 miles. Credit: Blue Origin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Blue Origin conducted two earlier test flights with the same booster and capsule in November 2015 and in January. An initial test flight in 2014 successfully boosted the capsule to the desired altitude, but a booster malfunction prevented a successful touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>Company engineers are implementing gradual upgrades to the vehicle with each test flight. In January, the booster control software was modified to enable a smooth landing regardless of whether the rocket was exactly at the center of the landing pad, an improvement that will improve landing safety in adverse winds.<\/p>\n<p>This time around, Bezos said the software governing the crew capsule\u2019s orientation control system was modified to provide \u201ca big performance win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A fully reusable launch vehicle and crew capsule are critical to Blue Origin\u2019s plans to launch tourists on fast-turnaround sub-orbital flights starting in about two years, or sooner depending on the progress of testing. The company plans dozens of test flight this year and next to demonstrate reliability and reusability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STORY WRITTEN FOR&nbsp;CBS NEWS&nbsp;&amp; USED WITH PERMISSION Blue Origin launched its reusable New Shepard suborbital spacecraft on its third test flight Saturday, successfully boosting an unpiloted capsule out of the discernible atmosphere for a few minutes of weightlessness before a parachute descent to the company\u2019s West Texas launch site. The New Shepard booster, meanwhile, plunged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,1046,1250],"class_list":["post-15617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-new-shepard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}