Blue Orgin Sticks the Landing!

[MANT!]

Blue Origin launched an unmanned capsule into space and landed the reusable booster, beating Space X to this important milestone..

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pillaOxGCo[/yt]

Now there were conditions that are very different..the New Shepard spacecraft only did a sounding rocket type flight
straight-up..then straight down very near the launch pad.

Also, the velocities are very different, as well as the mass and mass distribution. but still a significant achievement.

 

[Amaris]

You have to crawl before you can walk. Great work, Blue Origin! I hope SpaceX manages the same thing.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I thought this was pretty cool.

https://youtu.be/9pillaOxGCo

Pretty cool thing to do and making it land like that would not have been the easiest thing in the world. Other people like Elon Musk are doing stuff like this too and SpaceX..

But would be cool if they could build a manned vehicle that could get into space, dock with the ISS and then make a landing like this on the ground.

Very cool stuff I thought.

 

[sojourner]

Yeah, no. SpaceX has done this since 2013. SpaceX is currently try to reland a first stage capable of putting a payload on a path to orbit THEN reland on a moving target. Get back to me when Blue Origin has at least one of those milestones included in it's claims.

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, no. SpaceX has done this since 2013. SpaceX is currently try to reland a first stage capable of putting a payload on a path to orbit THEN reland on a moving target. Get back to me when Blue Origin has at least one of those milestones included in it's claims.

I'll applaud them for managing to launch a rocket and have it return in one piece. The more private companies we have working on this the better.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

So they're doing the space tourism thing? Suborbital flights for paying customers? Like, Space Ship Two only without the rube golberg carrier plane/feather wing system?

What's the ticket price?

 

[sojourner]

Yeah, no. SpaceX has done this since 2013. SpaceX is currently try to reland a first stage capable of putting a payload on a path to orbit THEN reland on a moving target. Get back to me when Blue Origin has at least one of those milestones included in it's claims.

I'll applaud them for managing to launch a rocket and have it return in one piece. The more private companies we have working on this the better.

Nothing wrong with that. Just pointing out that Blue Origin in no way, shape, or form, "beat SpaceX to the punch".

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, no. SpaceX has done this since 2013. SpaceX is currently try to reland a first stage capable of putting a payload on a path to orbit THEN reland on a moving target. Get back to me when Blue Origin has at least one of those milestones included in it's claims.

I'll applaud them for managing to launch a rocket and have it return in one piece. The more private companies we have working on this the better.

Nothing wrong with that. Just pointing out that Blue Origin in no way, shape, or form, "beat SpaceX to the punch".

I never said they beat SpaceX to the punch, just that I know SpaceX is having landing issues themselves, and I hope they manage to succeed, where Blue Origin has managed to resolve their landing issues.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I'll applaud them for managing to launch a rocket and have it return in one piece. The more private companies we have working on this the better.

Nothing wrong with that. Just pointing out that Blue Origin in no way, shape, or form, "beat SpaceX to the punch".

I never said they beat SpaceX to the punch, just that I know SpaceX is having landing issues themselves, and I hope they manage to succeed, where Blue Origin has managed to resolve their landing issues.

No, blue origin has resolved the same issues SpaceX has. Landing a rocket from a short vertical flight is something they have already done. It's landing a rocket from an ORBITAL LAUNCH that they haven't quite mastered yet.

This is like saying Blue Origin has learned how to do a cartwheel, and SpaceX still hasn't learned how to stick a full twisting double back flip. I hope SpaceX learns to stick that full-twisting double back flip, where Blue Origins has managed to land its cartwheels.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I, for one, welcome our full twisting double back-flip overlords.

 

[Draculasaurus]

On Twitter, Elon Musk linked to this article to help people understand why orbital flight is a different and much more challenging thing.
https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

 

[YellowSubmarine]

On Twitter, Elon Musk linked to this article to help people understand why orbital flight is a different and much more challenging thing.
https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

It's also useful to compare F9R flight test with CRS-6 failed landing. It's not difficult to land calmly after you've been going up and down calmly, like in the first video. Not so much if you've just managed to cut your extreme speed after trying to approach a “moving” (relative to you) target on the brink of your fuel.

But let's be fair to Blue Origin here. Space X is planning their first stage recovery to occur after only Mach 6 for Falcon 9 LEO flights, while New Shepherd is recovering after Mach 3, which is still way more than what the Grasshopper/F9R tests are going. SpaceX aren't trying recovery after GTO flights or working on second stage recovery at all before the MCT, IIIRC. So Blue Origin are a bit ahead on this here. They won't be once Falcon 9 first stage lands in December or January, but they are now – unless you count the near-successful landings.

 

[sojourner]

Considering BO doesn't have a second stage to even consider recovering, not sure how they are "a bit ahead" in any respect? And yes, I believe with this newly updated F9, SpaceX plans to recover first stages from the gto flights as well.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

"Ahead" in the sense that they've successfully recovered from higher velocities that SpaceX have to date, and barely until SpaceX launch their two upcoming LEO missions. Don't read more into that.

So we may see recovery attempt even on the ABS/Eutelsat GTO launch? Sounds even better.

 

[sojourner]

Even in that sense of "ahead" it's a disingenuous claim. SpaceX has gotten it's first stage back through the mach 8 flight envelope and to the surface. If they had been landing on dry land instead of trying to hit a moving barge in the Atlantic they would have stuck the landing already. As it is, they have exceeded all of BO's claims when you look at the entire test regime they have done.

 

[Amaris]

Nothing wrong with that. Just pointing out that Blue Origin in no way, shape, or form, "beat SpaceX to the punch".

I never said they beat SpaceX to the punch, just that I know SpaceX is having landing issues themselves, and I hope they manage to succeed, where Blue Origin has managed to resolve their landing issues.

No, blue origin has resolved the same issues SpaceX has. Landing a rocket from a short vertical flight is something they have already done. It's landing a rocket from an ORBITAL LAUNCH that they haven't quite mastered yet.

This is like saying Blue Origin has learned how to do a cartwheel, and SpaceX still hasn't learned how to stick a full twisting double back flip. I hope SpaceX learns to stick that full-twisting double back flip, where Blue Origins has managed to land its cartwheels.

Yes, I realize that. They are each at different stages of development. I'm hoping SpaceX resolves their landing issues, just as I'm glad to see Blue Origin has resolved theirs. Yes, two different situations, but the desire to see both continuing to advance in resolving their respective issues is my goal here.

 

[MANT!]

Remembering that the Blue Origin rocket did make an internationally defined "space flight" 100 kilometers.. the Grasshopper flights didn't and the Falcon 9 reusable first stages haven't successfully landed from space..yet..

Think about if Alan Shepard had launched before Yuri Gargarin (which almost happened) Alan Shepard would be celebrated as the first man in space even if his flight was suborbital instead of a true orbital flight..

 

[sojourner]

Yes, but it's not because they aren't able to do what BO has done. They've just been working on something much harder and more useful in the long run. SpaceX has everything they need to duplicate BO's feat at any time. They've demonstrated every part of that flight already.

 

[Dryson]

I think the reason why Blue was able to reland and Falcon wasn't able able to is because of the height of the height of each rocket. Blue is shorter and more round compared to Falcon which is taller and more slender. Being taller and slender presents more sway at the top of rocket compared to a rocket that is closer to the ground.

I think it has to do with kinetic energy transfer that when the rocket lands a certain amount of energy transfers to the top that causes sway if the energy is not bled off somehow.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yeah, it's a similar control problem to balancing a pencil on its end. However, this particular pencil starts off falling at terminal velocity and it's much more difficult to land successfully on a barge at sea than on a stable landing pad.

Back in the 60s, NASA considered modifying the Saturn V first stage (for use with the Shuttle) so that it could land back at the Cape but it was only ever a concept.

Saturn Shuttle