{"id":18167,"date":"2019-01-23T18:14:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T10:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-sends-nasa-backed-payloads-to-space-and-back-on-suborbital-rocket-ship\/"},"modified":"2019-01-23T18:14:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T10:14:48","slug":"blue-origin-sends-nasa-backed-payloads-to-space-and-back-on-suborbital-rocket-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-sends-nasa-backed-payloads-to-space-and-back-on-suborbital-rocket-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin sends NASA-backed payloads to space and back on suborbital rocket ship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_475648\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-475648\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-475648\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190123-blueorigin-630x495.jpg\" alt=\"New Shepard liftoff\" width=\"630\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190123-blueorigin-630x495.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190123-blueorigin-768x603.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190123-blueorigin-1260x990.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190123-blueorigin.jpg 1288w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-475648\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spaceship lifts off from its West Texas launch site. (Blue Origin via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture sent eight NASA-sponsored scientific payloads to the edge of space and back on its New Shepard suborbital spaceship, marking another step toward putting people on board.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket lifted off into clear, chilly skies from Blue Origin\u2019s launch site in West Texas at 9:08 a.m. CT (7:08 a.m. PT). Minutes after launch, New Shepard\u2019s gumdrop-shaped capsule separated from the hydrogen-fueled booster and headed to a maximum unofficial altitude of 350,775 feet (66 miles or 107 kilometers). That\u2019s well above the 100-kilometer Karman Line that currently serves as the internationally accepted boundary of space.<\/p>\n<p>The reusable booster maneuvered itself back to a landing on a pad not far from where it was launched, while the capsule deployed its parachutes and drifted back down to the desert terrain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWelcome home, New Shepard. Wow!\u201d launch commentator Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin\u2019s head of astronaut strategy and sales, said during today\u2019s webcast.<\/p>\n<p>In a follow-up tweet, Blue Origin said the 10-minute, 15-second mission \u201clooks to have been a wholly successful flight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA perfect day,\u201d Bezos said in an Instagram posting:<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" id=\"instagram-embed-0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bs_PftuFwi3\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=987&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com&amp;rp=%2F2019%2Fblue-origin-sends-nasa-funded-payloads-space-back-suborbital-rocket-ship%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A3325.565000064671%7D\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"773\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"background: white; max-width: 658px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was the 10th test flight for the New Shepard program, and the fourth go-round for the same booster-and-capsule pair. Blue Origin had initially planned for launch on Dec. 18, but it took more than a month to work through a ground infrastructure issue and other technical snags&nbsp;\u2014 and wait for acceptable weather.<\/p>\n<p>The scientific payloads packed aboard the capsule were flown under the auspices of NASA\u2019s Flight Opportunities Program, and included experiments aimed at characterizing the vibrations of flight and the spacecraft environment during the few minutes of weightlessness at the top of the ride.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese NASA-supported experiments will help advance in-space propulsion technologies, habitation systems, science instruments and other capabilities crucial for exploration,\u201d NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a recorded video. \u201cLike the researchers, I\u2019m excited to learn the results from this very important flight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Shepard is designed to fly itself autonomously, and there were no people aboard the craft for today\u2019s test flight. But Cornell said passengers could soon step aboard the next New Shepard spaceship, which has already been built.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re aiming for the end of this year, by the end of this year. But as we\u2019ve said before, we are not in a rush,\u201d Cornell said. \u201cWe want to take our time. We want to do this right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company hasn\u2019t yet announced the ticket price, and it\u2019s not yet taking reservations (although would-be fliers can sign up for updates).<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Blue Origin NS-10: New Shepard launch &amp; landing, 23 January 2019\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YUzYCDbDlnc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bezos, the world\u2019s richest person, has said he\u2019s selling roughly a billion dollars\u2019 worth of Amazon stock every year to support Blue Origin.&nbsp;That sum covers the New Shepard suborbital space program as well as the New Glenn orbital rocket development program and advanced projects such as the Blue Moon lunar lander. (For what it\u2019s worth, Bezos\u2019 current net worth is estimated at $136 billion.)<\/p>\n<p>New Shepard spacecraft and their BE-3 rocket engines are built at the company\u2019s headquarters in Kent, Wash., and then shipped down to West Texas for testing.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the more powerful BE-4 rocket engines for the New Glenn rocket go through the same production pipeline. But Blue Origin is getting ready to build BE-4 engines in Alabama and assemble New Glenn rockets in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin has also been tapped to build BE-4 engines for United Launch Alliance\u2019s next-generation, semi-reusable Vulcan rocket. A groundbreaking ceremony for Blue Origin\u2019s rocket factory in Huntsville, Ala., is scheduled on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The first New Glenn launch is currently set for 2021 from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos\u2019 ultimate goal is to help get humanity established in off-Earth settlements where there\u2019d be plenty of room for the species to spread out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019d have a trillion humans in the solar system, and then we\u2019d have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins,\u201d he said last Friday during an awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. \u201cThat\u2019s the world I want my grandchildren\u2019s grandchildren to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This report has been updated several times since first publication at 7:28 a.m. PT Jan. 23.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spaceship lifts off from its West Texas launch site. (Blue Origin via YouTube) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture sent eight NASA-sponsored scientific payloads to the edge of space and back on its New Shepard suborbital spaceship, marking another step toward putting people on board. The rocket lifted off [&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":[509,291,1046,1250],"class_list":["post-18167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-new-shepard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18167"}],"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=18167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}