....My guess is they are continuing to qualify the equipment and refine the booster recovery profile. I have not yet heard whether they have yet lofted a fully capable capsule with a life support system, but all of that will have to be qualified prior to taking crew/passengers....
Quote from: Chris Bergin on 04/02/2016 03:33 pmExcellent. Now we wait for some photos, facts and video!It's interesting how they are now becoming much less secretive.Marketing is becoming important for filling the places on future commercial launches.A live web streaming of the next launch ?
Excellent. Now we wait for some photos, facts and video!
"Much less secretive"... - Well, only compared to their high secretiveness up till now. Other companies haven't been afraid of sharing both their successes and failures, in time-honoured US fashion, as done by NASA since the 1960's.Bezos, who is seemingly such a fan of NASA (fishing up Saturn engines etc) should perhaps take a page out of the NASA playbook for future launches.
Quote from: Oersted on 04/03/2016 08:19 pm"Much less secretive"... - Well, only compared to their high secretiveness up till now. Other companies haven't been afraid of sharing both their successes and failures, in time-honoured US fashion, as done by NASA since the 1960's.Bezos, who is seemingly such a fan of NASA (fishing up Saturn engines etc) should perhaps take a page out of the NASA playbook for future launches.... but then they wouldn't be able to choose the views that downplay how phallic that rocket is. Do you notice that we now only get 1 or 2 second shots of the vehicle in profile with the CC attached? All the contagious giggling after the first video must have hit the spot in the marketing department.
The NSF article said the crew capsule landed before the booster. I'm wondering what flight profile allows the crew capsule to come down, with parachutes, before the booster returns at such high speed. I would have thought the booster would naturally come down before the crew capsule.
Video was just released!Edit: Got to love that drone shot of the ascent. Looks like they can still push the landing burn farther.
Geeze...that approach starting at 1:07 would cause some serious pucker-power if there were anyone on board!Congrats on the good landing though!
At that altitude the curvature is still 99% due to the wide angle lens, as long as the frame center points below the horizon.SpaceShipOne apogee videos are famous for that, when the spacecraft tumbles around, the earth curvature actually reverses.
Quote from: Lee Jay on 04/04/2016 01:43 amGeeze...that approach starting at 1:07 would cause some serious pucker-power if there were anyone on board!Congrats on the good landing though!There wouldn't be - future passengers are in the capsule coming down under a parachute.
I wonder what is done, if anything, to ensure that the capsule and booster won't come into contact at any point between separation and landing?