{"id":19307,"date":"2016-07-20T20:16:06","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T12:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-touts-results-from-blue-origin-spaceships-test-even-with-one-less-chute\/"},"modified":"2016-07-20T20:16:06","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T12:16:06","slug":"jeff-bezos-touts-results-from-blue-origin-spaceships-test-even-with-one-less-chute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-touts-results-from-blue-origin-spaceships-test-even-with-one-less-chute\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos touts results from Blue Origin spaceship\u2019s test, even with one less chute"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_261947\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-261947\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-261947\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper1-630x396.jpg\" alt=\"Blue Origin bumpers\" width=\"630\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper1-630x396.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper1-768x483.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper1.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-261947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo taken after last month\u2019s flight test of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spaceship highlights the ring of crushable bumpers on the underside of the crew capsule. (Credit: Blue Origin via Jeff Bezos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Last month\u2019s test flight of a Blue Origin rocket ship to space and back was aimed at seeing&nbsp;how safely it could land even if one of its three parachutes went out. Today, the results got a thumbs-up from Jeff Bezos, who\u2019s the founder of the Blue Origin space venture as well as the Amazon online retailing giant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve designed the capsule to ensure astronaut safety not just for the failure of one parachute, but even for the failure of two parachutes,\u201d Bezos said in an email update that was addressed to fans and potential spacefliers.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket ships are built at Blue Origin\u2019s production facility in Kent, Wash., and then shipped down to the company\u2019s suborbital launch complex in West Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The uncrewed flight test was conducted June 19. New Shepard rocketed up just beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) boundary of outer space. Then the booster fired up its rocket engine again for a vertical landing, while the crew capsule made a separate descent&nbsp;to&nbsp;Earth.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Flight Four \u2013 One Chute Out\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xYYTuZCjZcE?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>Similar flights had been done with the same craft three times before, but this time around, one of the capsule\u2019s parachutes was disabled.&nbsp;Bezos said the two parachutes slowed the descent to 23 mph, as opposed to the usual 16 mph with three parachutes..<\/p>\n<p>Just before the touchdown, the capsule\u2019s retro rocket system fired. Bezos said that brought the speed at impact down to 3 mph.&nbsp;The capsule was equipped with a ring of crushable bumpers on its bottom to absorb that remaining force.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven with one chute out, the crushable barely crushed,\u201d Bezos reported. \u201cWhen new, the crushable is about 5.5 inches high and can crush down to less than one inch high, providing a constant deceleration force as it crushes. After the mission, the crushable was still over 5 inches high along nearly the entire circumference of the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_261949\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-261949\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-261949\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper2-630x393.jpg\" alt=\"Crushable Blue Origin bumpers\" width=\"630\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper2-630x393.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper2-768x479.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160720-blue-origin-bumper2.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-261949\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The \u201cbarely crushed\u201d crushable bumpers were taken off the crew capsule and inspected after the flight. (Credit: Blue Origin via Jeff Bezos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The spacecraft itself didn\u2019t even suffer a fender bender. If astronauts were on board, they would have felt nothing more than a jolt. \u201cIn addition to the retrorocket system and the crushable ring, there is an energy-absorbing mechanism mounted underneath each seat,\u201d Bezos explained.<\/p>\n<p>The bumpers will be replaced for the next flight, which is likely to take place next month. If Blue Origin\u2019s space program proceeds according to plan, test astronauts will start flying on New Shepard next year. Paying passengers could get on board as early as 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The ticket price hasn\u2019t yet been set, and&nbsp;Blue Origin&nbsp;isn\u2019t taking reservations, but the company does let you sign up for more information \u2013 including future emails from Bezos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A photo taken after last month\u2019s flight test of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spaceship highlights the ring of crushable bumpers on the underside of the crew capsule. (Credit: Blue Origin via Jeff Bezos) Last month\u2019s test flight of a Blue Origin rocket ship to space and back was aimed at seeing&nbsp;how safely it could land [&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-19307","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\/19307"}],"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=19307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}