{"id":18707,"date":"2017-12-12T21:12:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T13:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-says-blue-origin-gives-test-dummy-a-great-ride-on-new-shepard-suborbital-spaceship\/"},"modified":"2017-12-12T21:12:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T13:12:28","slug":"jeff-bezos-says-blue-origin-gives-test-dummy-a-great-ride-on-new-shepard-suborbital-spaceship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-says-blue-origin-gives-test-dummy-a-great-ride-on-new-shepard-suborbital-spaceship\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos says Blue Origin gives test dummy \u2018a great ride\u2019 on New Shepard suborbital spaceship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_383704\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-383704\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-383704\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-3-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Booster touchdown\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-3-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-3-1260x840.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-383704\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard booster touches down in Texas after a successful test. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos says his space venture, Blue Origin, launched the latest version of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship today for the company\u2019s first test flight in 14 months, with an instrumented test dummy seated aboard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had a great ride,\u201d Bezos said tonight in a tweet.<\/p>\n<p>The uncrewed, straight-up, straight-down trip was conducted at Blue Origin\u2019s testing ground in West Texas. The video that Bezos included with his tweet showed the New Shepard blasting off and rising above a wide-open spread of ranchland.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the dummy, which was nicknamed \u201cMannequin Skywalker,\u201d the New Shepard crew capsule carried 12 commercial, research and educational payloads, Blue Origin said.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s fact sheet said the flight lasted a total of 10 minutes and 6 seconds, starting at 10:59 a.m. CT (8:59 a.m. PT). The booster went nearly three times the speed of sound on the way up (Mach 2.94) and even faster on the way down (Mach 3.74). The capsule\u2019s maximum altitude was listed as 99.39 kilometers, just shy of the internationally accepted 100-kilometer boundary of outer space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s flight of New Shepard was a tremendous success,\u201d Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said in the fact sheet. \u201cIt marks the inaugural flight of our next-generation crew capsule as we continue step-by-step progress in our test flight program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Crew Capsule 2.0 First Flight\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CSDHM6iuogI?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>Between November 2015 and October 2016, Blue Origin put an earlier version of the New Shepard through five successful flights to the edge of space and back. Then that spacecraft was retired, and the company\u2019s team in Kent, Wash., turned its focus to building a version of the crew capsule that\u2019s closer to what passengers would eventually be riding. For example, the updated version has actual windows rather than painted-on facsimiles.<\/p>\n<p>If the current series of flight tests goes well, Blue Origin could start taking people up on suborbital space rides as early as next year. The company isn\u2019t yet taking reservations or publishing its ticket prices. Would-be riders will have to wait until the tests are complete. But Bezos\u2019 video included a teaser in big letters at the end: \u201cReady to fly?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Shepard is designed to fly up to six passengers autonomously. During flight, the crew capsule separates from a booster that\u2019s powered by Blue Origin\u2019s hydrogen-fueled BE-3 rocket engine. The capsule drifts down to the ground on the end of a parachute, while the booster is programmed to relight its engine and fly itself back down separately to a controlled landing.<\/p>\n<p>Today the booster\u2019s landing legs touched down smoothly at a velocity of 6.75 mph, while the capsule was going a mere 1 mph when it hit the dirt, Blue Origin said.<\/p>\n<style>.fotorama1782801749121 .fotorama__nav--thumbs .fotorama__nav__frame{\npadding:2px;\nheight:64px}\n.fotorama1782801749121 .fotorama__thumb-border{\nheight:60px;\nborder-width:2px;\nmargin-top:2px}<\/style>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Crew-Capsule-2.0-Landing-3-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 400px; left: 100px; top: 0px;\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tAmazon billionaire Jeff Bezos (in the cowboy hat) checks out the New Shepard crew capsule after its landing. (Blue Origin Photo)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-3-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 400px; left: 100px; top: 0px;\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tTouchdown in West Texas for the New Shepard booster. (Blue Origin Photo)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Crew-Capsule-2.0-Landing-2-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 400px; left: 100px; top: 0px;\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tAn instrumented test dummy, nicknamed \u201cMannequin Skywalker,\u201d sits next to one of the huge windows in the New Shepard crew capsule. (Blue Origin Photo)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Crew-Capsule-2.0-Landing-3-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 96px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Crew-Capsule-2.0-Landing-2-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 96px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Crew-Capsule-2.0-Landing-1-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 96px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-1-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 96px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-2-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 96px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Blue-Origin-New-Shepard-Mission-7-Booster-Landing-3-1260x840.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 96px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><\/p>\n<p>Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the aim of having millions of people living and working in space. Last year, he told reporters that he sells about a billion dollars worth of Amazon stock annually to support the venture, and he has joked that the reason he founded Amazon was to earn the money to fund his space ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos\u2019 current estimated net worth is $99 billion, making him the world\u2019s richest person, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to its suborbital space program, Blue Origin is working on a next-generation BE-4 rocket engine and an orbital-class rocket called New Glenn. Just as New Shepard is named after NASA\u2019s first astronaut in space, Alan Shepard, New Glenn is named after the first American in orbit, John Glenn.<\/p>\n<p>New Shepard is produced at Blue Origin\u2019s headquarters in Kent, but New Glenn will be built at a 750,000-square-foot facility that\u2019s nearing completion in Florida. That rocket\u2019s first test launch is due to take place by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin is also working on a lunar delivery system nicknamed Blue Moon, which may figure in NASA\u2019s updated plans to send humans to the lunar surface. In May, Bezos said Blue Moon could facilitate building \u201ca permanent human settlement on one of the poles of the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Hat tip to NASASpaceflight.com and its forum members.&nbsp;The original version of this report was published at 10:55 a.m. PT Dec. 12.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard booster touches down in Texas after a successful test. (Blue Origin Photo) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos says his space venture, Blue Origin, launched the latest version of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship today for the company\u2019s first test flight in 14 months, with an instrumented test dummy seated aboard. \u201cHe had [&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-18707","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\/18707"}],"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=18707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}