Blue Origin seems to be moving along quite nicely to me. The company did not announce plans for New Glenn (then called Very Big Brother) until September 15, 2015 - only a bit more than two years ago. Since then it has test fired BE-4, built most of its factory at the Cape, and begun work on the launch and test complex nearby. SpaceX announced plans for Falcon 9 during September 2005. It moved into its Hawthorne factory during October 2007. Merlin 1C development finished one month later, but Merlin Vacuum testing extended into 2009. Full scale Falcon 9 first stage firings at McGregor took place during mid to late 2008. The first Falcon 9 launch took place on June 4, 2010. - Ed Kyle
Blue Origin seems to be moving along quite nicely to me. The company did not announce plans for New Glenn (then called Very Big Brother) until September 15, 2015 - only a bit more than two years ago. Since then it has test fired BE-4, built most of its factory at the Cape, and begun work on the launch and test complex nearby.
SpaceX announced plans for Falcon 9 during September 2005. It moved into its Hawthorne factory during October 2007. Merlin 1C development finished one month later, but Merlin Vacuum testing extended into 2009. Full scale Falcon 9 first stage firings at McGregor took place during mid to late 2008. The first Falcon 9 launch took place on June 4, 2010.
I think it's far-fetched to think that NA is a lander and not a bigger launcher. It also goes against a lot of the clues that were worked through.
Alan Shepard; John Glenn; Neel Armstrong. Could New Armstrong just be the BlueMoon lander?...
“When we have millions of people living and working in space, we want them to be able to go to lots of destinations,” he said. “Mars would be one of them. The moon would be another. New Armstrong is really designed for that long-term vision.”
I can't extrapolate from that article that New Armstrong is a Launch Vehicle.Geekwire:Quote “When we have millions of people living and working in space, we want them to be able to go to lots of destinations,” he said. “Mars would be one of them. The moon would be another. New Armstrong is really designed for that long-term vision.”New Armstrong enables going to the moon and mars, is what I read.Alan Boyle, the writer of the article, makes the assumption that New Armstrong is a larger rocket.
Sorry, here I go again: I fooled around a bit with a image from Reddit and one from BlueOrigin.I scaled the New Glenn so it has the same tank diameter as New Shepard.
Quote from: Rik ISS-fan on 11/08/2017 11:24 amSorry, here I go again: I fooled around a bit with a image from Reddit and one from BlueOrigin.I scaled the New Glenn so it has the same tank diameter as New Shepard. Note that NS uses uses hydrolox while NG uses methalox which has a much greater propellant density. For the same tank volume, methalox has about twice the impulse than hydrolox. So scaling NG to the smaller size and comparing it the shorter NS needs to take this into account. The smaller NG would have much greater performance than NS since it would be using methalox and has a larger tank volume.
Suggest BE-4, unlike BE-3, hasn't enough throttle/gimbal to do a single engine vehicle landing.If you're going to do a single BE-4 vehicle, it'll be an expendable like a twin engine Vulcan.
Quote from: Space Ghost 1962 on 11/09/2017 03:14 pmSuggest BE-4, unlike BE-3, hasn't enough throttle/gimbal to do a single engine vehicle landing.If you're going to do a single BE-4 vehicle, it'll be an expendable like a twin engine Vulcan. There are other ways to land boosters besides rockets. Air bags were considered for the Kistler K-1.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kistler_K-1_Flight_Profile.gif
Quote from: Space Ghost 1962 on 11/09/2017 03:14 pmSuggest BE-4, unlike BE-3, hasn't enough throttle/gimbal to do a single engine vehicle landing.If you're going to do a single BE-4 vehicle, it'll be an expendable like a twin engine Vulcan.Landing of a single main engine rocket can always be accomplished by adding more little engines such as the 11,000 lb methalox thrusters planned for use in Blue Moon. I digress since this is off topic for the most part, but that "single engine can't land" comment always bugs me as being dismissive of other design possibilities.