Author Topic: LIVE: 6th New Shepard Dev Flight (In-flight Escape Test) - Oct. 5, 2016  (Read 70428 times)

Offline Navier–Stokes

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Update thread for 6th New Shepard flight, which will be an in-flight escape test. Once again, there will be a live webcast, which is scheduled to start Wednesday (October 5) at 10:45 am EDT (14:45 UTC) on http://blueorigin.com.

Baseline article for this test:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/10/blue-origin-in-flight-pusher-abort-new-shepard/

Webcast


New Shepard Capsule Escape Animation


Upcoming In-flight Escape Test

Our next flight is going to be dramatic, no matter how it ends.

Like Mercury, Apollo, and Soyuz, New Shepard has an escape system that can quickly propel the crew capsule to safety if a problem is detected with the booster. Our escape system, however, is configured differently from those earlier designs. They mounted the escape motor on a tower above the capsule – a “tractor” configuration – the escape motor would pull the capsule away from a failing booster. But because a capsule cannot reenter Earth’s atmosphere or deploy parachutes with a tower on top, the tower, along with the escape motor, must be jettisoned on every flight – even the nominal flights. Expending an escape motor on every flight drives up costs significantly. Further, the jettison operation is itself safety critical. Failure to jettison the tower is catastrophic.

The New Shepard escape motor pushes rather than pulls and is mounted underneath the capsule rather than on a tower. There is no jettison operation. On a nominal mission, the escape motor is not expended and can be flown again and again. We’ve already tested our pusher escape system, including many ground tests and a successful pad escape test, but this upcoming flight will be our toughest test yet. We’ll intentionally trigger an escape in flight and at the most stressing condition: maximum dynamic pressure through transonic velocities.

Capsule in-flight escape testing was last done during the Apollo program. From 1964-1966, in-flight escape tests were performed with Apollo simulator capsules using an expendable booster called the Little Joe II. We’ll be doing our in-flight escape test with the same reusable New Shepard booster that we’ve already flown four times. About 45 seconds after liftoff at about 16,000 feet, we’ll intentionally command escape. Redundant separation systems will sever the crew capsule from the booster at the same time we ignite the escape motor. You can get an idea of what will happen in this animation. The escape motor will vector thrust to steer the capsule to the side, out of the booster’s path. The high acceleration portion of the escape lasts less than two seconds, but by then the capsule will be hundreds of feet away and diverging quickly. It will traverse twice through transonic velocities – the most difficult control region – during the acceleration burn and subsequent deceleration. The capsule will then coast, stabilized by reaction control thrusters, until it starts descending. Its three drogue parachutes will deploy near the top of its flight path, followed shortly thereafter by main parachutes.

What of the booster? It’s the first ever rocket booster to fly above the Karman line into space and then land vertically upon the Earth. And it’s done so multiple times. We’d really like to retire it after this test and put it in a museum. Sadly, that’s not likely. This test will probably destroy the booster. The booster was never designed to survive an in-flight escape. The capsule escape motor will slam the booster with 70,000 pounds of off-axis force delivered by searing hot exhaust. The aerodynamic shape of the vehicle quickly changes from leading with the capsule to leading with the ring fin, and this all happens at maximum dynamic pressure. Nevertheless, the booster is very robust and our Monte Carlo simulations show there’s some chance we can fly through these disturbances and recover the booster. If the booster does manage to survive this flight – its fifth – we will in fact reward it for its service with a retirement party and put it in a museum. In the more likely event that we end up sacrificing the booster in service of this test, it will still have most of its propellant on board at the time escape is triggered, and its impact with the desert floor will be most impressive.

The test should be in the first part of October, and we’ll webcast it live for your viewing pleasure. Details to come.

If someone forwarded this email to you and you’d like to subscribe to get these updates yourself, you can do so here. In my next email update, I hope to give you a sneak peek of the orbital vehicle we’ve been working on for the last few years.

Gradatim Ferociter!

Jeff Bezos

Dramatic New Shepard #InFlightEscape test Tuesday, Oct 4. Live webcast starts at 10:50 am ET at http://blueorigin.com  #GradatimFerociter

Weather no-go for tomorrow’s New Shepard #InFlightEscape test. Webcast now Wednesday 10:45 am ET. #GradatimFerociter

Pad Escape Video (October 2012)


Apollo Launch Abort System Test


29 Apr 2015 flight -- 1st NS test, launch vehicle lost
23 Nov 2015 flight -- 2nd NS test, 1st test of new launch vehicle
22 Jan 2016 flight -- 3rd NS test, 2nd test of same launch vehicle
02 Apr 2016 flight -- 4th NS test, 3rd test of same launch vehicle
19 Jun 2016 flight -- 5th NS test, 4th test of same launch vehicle
Historical links courtesy of ChrisC

Edit: Updated date and time due to weather delay.
Edit: Added time in UTC (by popular demand).
Edit: Embedded relevant videos.
Edit: Embedded webcast.
« Last Edit: 10/05/2016 02:02 pm by Navier–Stokes »

Offline Kryten

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Quote
Blue Origin ‏@blueorigin  7m7 minutes ago
Weather no-go for tomorrow’s New Shepard #InFlightEscape test. Webcast now Wednesday 10:45 am ET. #GradatimFerociter

Offline rocx

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10:45 am EDT

UTC time? Please, a thread opener should always at least use metric and UTC so most of the world can understand it without having to look up or scroll down the thread.
Any day with a rocket landing is a fantastic day.

Offline kevinof

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That's  14:45 UTC and 15:45 UK time?  Do I have that right?


10:45 am EDT

UTC time? Please, a thread opener should always at least use metric and UTC so most of the world can understand it without having to look up or scroll down the thread.
« Last Edit: 10/04/2016 08:01 am by kevinof »

Offline Welsh Dragon

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Offline high road

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I got confused by the UTC time. Way easier to just remember the difference with east coast time. That I got used to in two launches.

Offline kevinof

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Handy hint - Google Now voice command (android and Ios)  - "Convert 10:45 am eastern time into local time"

I got confused by the UTC time. Way easier to just remember the difference with east coast time. That I got used to in two launches.

Offline Prober

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2017 - Everything Old is New Again.
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant..." --Isoroku Yamamoto

Offline Navier–Stokes

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@NanoRacks 11:02 AM - 3 Oct 2016

NanoRacks is here at @BlueOrigin’s #NewShepard launch, training on payload integration – follow along on our journey! #GradatimFerociter

@NanoRacks 6:25 AM - 4 Oct 2016

Yesterday the NanoRacks team finished prepping our #suborbital test payload hardware for #NewShepard launch

Background:
NanoRacks Team With Blue Origin on Suborbital Research (July 16, 2015)
NanoRacks Developing Research Hardware Exclusively for Blue Origin’s New Shepard Space Vehicle (June 2, 2016)
« Last Edit: 10/04/2016 05:28 pm by Navier–Stokes »

Offline Kansan52

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Wow they look young (to this old geezer).

Offline Navier–Stokes

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More details on the new payload locker apparently being flown on this flight:

@NanoRacks 12:40 PM - 4 Oct 2016

We are pleased to announce the NanoRacks Feather Frame: our payload locker for #NewShepard. http://ow.ly/U8Qp304OT0z #LaunchViaNanoRacks
« Last Edit: 10/04/2016 08:39 pm by Navier–Stokes »

Offline meekGee

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10:45 am EDT

UTC time? Please, a thread opener should always at least use metric and UTC so most of the world can understand it without having to look up or scroll down the thread.

We've got ALL of the world covered, coast to coast!
ABCD - Always Be Counting Down

Offline Gliderflyer

NOTAM is up:

!FDC 6/2789 ZAB NM..AIRSPACE VAN HORN, TX..TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS DUE TO SPACE FLIGHT OPERATIONS WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 17NM RADIUS OF 3127N10446W OR THE SALT FLAT /SFL/ VORTAC 125 DEGREE RADIAL AT 24NM, SFC-UNL. PURSUANT TO 14CFR SECTION 91.143 TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE IN EFFECT. AUDREY POWERS, TELEPHONE 432-207-2132, IS IN CHARGE OF OPERATION. ALBUQUERQUE ARTCC /ZAB/, TELEPHONE 505-856-4500, IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY. 1610051300-1610072100.

I tried it at home

Offline leaflion

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Offline Chris Bergin

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Offline Kryten

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Quote
Clay Mowry ‏@ClayMowry  52m52 minutes ago
New Shepard has left the VPF for the launch pad. On track for the test flight today. Webcast at 10:45 am Eastern at Bluorigin.com

Offline Chris Bergin

There's a poll about the potential results of this test for a bit of fun:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=41380.0
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Offline Chris Bergin

NEW SHEPARD IN-FLIGHT ESCAPE TEST NOW WEDNESDAY. WEBCAST BEGINS AT 10:45 AM ET
https://www.blueorigin.com/
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Offline Chris Bergin

Blue Origin ‏@blueorigin  8m8 minutes ago
Everything looking good this morning for #InFlightEscape. Live webcast at 10:45 am ET #GradatimFerociter
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Offline chewi

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New Shepard In-flight Escape Test


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