Jeff Ashby, Blue Origin: there is one thing cooler than watching space launches, and that is watching rockets land. #NSRC2017
Ashby: recalling being in a meeting 10 years ago with Air Force Space Command Gen. Chilton, along with AFRL and NASA personnel, who concluded that flyback boosters were not viable. Technology and private funding changed that. #NSRC2017
Ashby: one-year hiatus in New Shepard suborbital flight was to incorporate lessons from the earlier series of flight tests. Learned a lot during those earlier tests. #NSRC2017
Ashby discussing some of the key technical elements of New Shepard that enables operational reusability: ring fins, speed brakes, deeply-throttling BE-3 engine.Currently turning around vehicle in about 2 weeks; hope to get it down to 1 week with ~20 people. #NSRC2017
Ashby: flight last week was the first under an FAA launch license (previous ones were under experimental permits); needed to collect revenue for flights. #NSRC2017
Ashby: should have a little more than three minutes of microgravity on New Shepard flights. Peak of about 5 g on reentry. #NSRC2017
Ashby: we’re roughly a year out from human flights on New Shepard. Will start with test flights; about 1.5 to 2 years before people can start flying with their research payloads. #NSRC2017
Ashby: not selling tickets for New Shepard flights; we’ll wait until we have the version of the capsule and rocket flying that we plan to use for commercial service. #NSRC2017
Ashby noted the Apollo astronauts who visited the New Shepard exhibit this summer at Oshkosh, like Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin. They’re “strong supporters” of what we’re doing now, but that wasn’t always the case. #NSRC2017
Ashby: one day of training will include a sim of a normal mission plus emergency egress and related training. #NSRC2017
Blue Origin a year away from crewed New Shepard flightsby Jeff Foust — December 19, 2017
[Erika] Wagner: we plan on flying payloads on all of our test flights in the next year on New Shepard, then bring in the version of the vehicle that will carry people. #NSRC2017
Wagner: a standard payload locker on a New Shepard flight (about 52x41x24 cm, 11.3 kg) will cost between $50-120K, depending on its requirements. #NSRC2017
Wagner: New Shepard's future capabilities: Up to 6 astronauts and/or payload stacks, Payload access L-30 mins and R+20 mins, external mounting and deployment, science-quality window inserts, capsule replacement payloads, additional possibilities as demand grows. #NSRC2017
Wagner: a Nanolab (about the size of a 2U cubesat) starts at less than $10K for student payloads. #NSRC2017
Wagner: working on supporting external payloads mounted in interstage area of New Shepard propulsion module, around ring fins. #NSRC2017
NASA willing to consider flying researchers on commercial suborbital vehiclesby Jeff Foust — December 27, 2017
.@BlueOrigin seeking to hire an Astronaut Experience Manager: Understand astronaut needs/desires, help define/develop the end-to-end astronaut experience, lead a team to implement, lead astronaut experience operations, develop astronaut hospitality program
Clay Mowry, Blue Origin: expect to do several New Shepard test flights this year; start flying our own crew late this year or early next year.
New Shepard will be flying Blue Origin employees by the end of this year, assuming our test program continues to go well. Within the next year or two, we’ll have paying customers, which is really exciting.
An FAA temporary flight restriction suggests Blue Origin will be conducting another New Shepard suborbital test flight as soon as tomorrow: bit.ly/2qQjhIG
Blue Origin has said they want to fly people *this year*. That will be on the fourth NS rocket.
I am not sure if this is news but Phil Plaint said that the 4th version of the NS rocket is the one that will carry crew:Quote from: Bad AstronomerBlue Origin has said they want to fly people *this year*. That will be on the fourth NS rocket.https://twitter.com/BadAstronomer/status/990643735515009029
Blue Origin expects to start flying people on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle “soon” and start selling tickets for commercial flights next year, a company executive said June 19.Speaking at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit here, as the keynote of a half-day track on earth and space applications, Blue Origin Senior Vice President Rob Meyerson offered a few updates on the development of the company’s suborbital vehicle.“We plan to start flying our first test passengers soon,” he said after showing a video of a previous New Shepard flight at the company’s West Texas test site. All of the New Shepard flights to date have been without people on board, but the company has said in the past it would fly its personnel on the vehicle in later tests.