Author Topic: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2  (Read 464978 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« on: 10/17/2017 07:03 pm »
Thread 2 for this general Blue Origin thread. A new update only thread will be added later.

Thread one: (Over 800,000 views!)
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=10685.0

Will fill this opening post out with more content later.
« Last Edit: 10/17/2017 07:04 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline Navier–Stokes

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #1 on: 10/19/2017 04:45 pm »
According Eric Berger (Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica), Blue Origin was once interested in buying ULA but such a move is no longer being considered:
Quote
Jacob Teufert @jteufert

My bet is BO buys ULA.
Eric Berger‏ @SciGuySpace 

they've looked at this in the past, but it's off the table for now.

Online abaddon

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #2 on: 10/19/2017 04:59 pm »
The tweet says "they've looked at this in the past, but it's off the table for now".  This suggests such a strategy is something they might consider in the future.

Online rcoppola

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #3 on: 10/19/2017 05:26 pm »
There's not much ULA has that BO needs at this point. They have the pad, hardware, manufacturing...etc..
And they don't need to buy them to acquire any of their talent/experience, if needed.

Too many legacy entanglements with that purchase. Not worth it IMO.
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Offline woods170

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #4 on: 10/20/2017 06:03 am »
There's not much ULA has that BO needs at this point. They have the pad, hardware, manufacturing...etc..
And they don't need to buy them to acquire any of their talent/experience, if needed.

Too many legacy entanglements with that purchase. Not worth it IMO.
Agreed. ULA only becomes interesting to Blue again once Delta IV is gone, Atlas V is on its way out, the overhead in launchpads is gone as well as the personnel count. Also, ULA will have to become agile, not depending on just government work to stay in business. Once they succeed in doing that (and I think they eventually will) than they will be IMO interesting to Blue again.
« Last Edit: 10/20/2017 08:10 am by woods170 »

Offline Rik ISS-fan

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #5 on: 10/20/2017 11:34 am »
VAFB pad ... SLC-2
« Last Edit: 10/20/2017 11:50 am by Rik ISS-fan »

Offline Brovane

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #6 on: 10/20/2017 05:31 pm »
There's not much ULA has that BO needs at this point. They have the pad, hardware, manufacturing...etc..
And they don't need to buy them to acquire any of their talent/experience, if needed.

Too many legacy entanglements with that purchase. Not worth it IMO.

The technology around ACES like IVF? 
"Look at that! If anybody ever said, "you'll be sitting in a spacecraft naked with a 134-pound backpack on your knees charging it", I'd have said "Aw, get serious". - John Young - Apollo-16

Offline guckyfan

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #7 on: 10/22/2017 06:33 am »
There's not much ULA has that BO needs at this point. They have the pad, hardware, manufacturing...etc..
And they don't need to buy them to acquire any of their talent/experience, if needed.

Too many legacy entanglements with that purchase. Not worth it IMO.

The technology around ACES like IVF?

Only if they want to use LH2 extensively and for long duration missions. Not needed for methane.

Offline Prettz

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #8 on: 10/22/2017 04:26 pm »
Only if they want to use LH2 extensively and for long duration missions. Not needed for methane.
They do. Their proposed third stage is hydrogen.

Offline guckyfan

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #9 on: 10/22/2017 04:45 pm »
Only if they want to use LH2 extensively and for long duration missions. Not needed for methane.
They do. Their proposed third stage is hydrogen.

Proposed is not the same as in use. Also it is unlikely that a third stage would be refueled. It could be useful to have a loiter time in the range of 3 days, for getting to lunar orbits or EM-L points. But that does not necessarily need an ICE, like ACES.

Offline ZachF

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #10 on: 10/22/2017 08:57 pm »
Only if they want to use LH2 extensively and for long duration missions. Not needed for methane.
They do. Their proposed third stage is hydrogen.

I would bet that they go for a reusable US before a hydrolox 3rd stage.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Hydrolox 3S never gets built.
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Offline Svetoslav

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #11 on: 10/25/2017 08:20 pm »
Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  3m3 minutes ago
More
Gunderson: we’re developing New Shepard primarily to get practice in reusability; think there’s a suborbital market to sustain it. #vonbraun

Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  2m2 minutes ago
More
Gunderson: we’ll be launching the human-rated version of New Shepard starting later this year. Intend to be flying people next yr. #vonbraun

Offline sanman

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #12 on: 10/31/2017 04:27 am »
So will New Shepard more or less be competing with Virgin's SpaceShipTwo for customers?


Online Steven Pietrobon

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #13 on: 10/31/2017 07:08 am »
So will New Shepard more or less be competing with Virgin's SpaceShipTwo for customers?

I believe so. They are both aiming to launch tourists above 100 km.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline woods170

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #14 on: 10/31/2017 08:40 am »
So will New Shepard more or less be competing with Virgin's SpaceShipTwo for customers?

I believe so. They are both aiming to launch tourists above 100 km.
Yes, both on suborbital trajectories and both allowing the tourists to enjoy unrestricted "floating around the cabin" for roughly 5 minutes.
The main difference is in how they get up there: Rocketplane with glider landing vs rocket with propulsive landing.

Offline jpo234

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You want to be inspired by things. You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great. That's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It's about believing in the future and believing the future will be better than the past. And I can't think of anything more exciting than being out there among the stars.

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #16 on: 11/04/2017 07:17 am »
Someone certainly thinks it’s for Blue:

Quote
@JeffBezos congrats on cashing in $1.1B of Amazon Stock to fund Blue Origin. The future of Humanity is better for your investment! Thank U.

https://twitter.com/peterdiamandis/status/926592734743314433

Offline Mike Jones

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #17 on: 11/04/2017 08:38 am »
Impressive if that is the case ... 2 bn$ invested by Jeff Bezos in Blue Origin in 2017 alone !  That should bring a strong momentum to their major development programmes : New Shepard and New Glenn. Maybe Blue Moon lander as well ?
According to Crunchbase, SpaceX has only raised 1,5bn$ in equity in total (mainly in 2015 and 2017 to be fair).
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/space-exploration-technologies

Offline QuantumG

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #18 on: 11/04/2017 08:55 am »
Yeah, maybe they'll double their pace!  8)
Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline jpo234

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Re: Blue Origin General Discussion Thread 2
« Reply #19 on: 11/04/2017 11:21 am »
Impressive if that is the case ... 2 bn$ invested by Jeff Bezos in Blue Origin in 2017 alone !  That should bring a strong momentum to their major development programmes : New Shepard and New Glenn. Maybe Blue Moon lander as well ?
According to Crunchbase, SpaceX has only raised 1,5bn$ in equity in total (mainly in 2015 and 2017 to be fair).
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/space-exploration-technologies
Or something spooked Bezos and he suddenly thinks New Glenn will not be enough?

Maybe they skip the reusable second stage for NG and go straight for NA.
« Last Edit: 11/04/2017 11:23 am by jpo234 »
You want to be inspired by things. You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great. That's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It's about believing in the future and believing the future will be better than the past. And I can't think of anything more exciting than being out there among the stars.

Tags: Jeff Bezos 
 

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