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Blue Origin
Blue Origin's pusher escape system rockets the company's prototype crew capsule away from the launch pad, demonstrating a key safety system for both suborbital and orbital flights. Click on the picture to go to the Blue Origin website for a video of the test flight.
Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket venture notched a blazing success last week when it tested a NASA-backed launch pad escape system for its crew capsule.
The Oct. 19 demonstration flight at Blue Origin's West Texas spaceport marked the final milestone for NASA's $22 million agreement with Blue Origin, which was aimed at promoting the development of next-generation spaceships capable of resupplying the International Space Station. Blue Origin, which is based in Kent, Wash., decided not to compete for the next phase of NASA's orbital program — but in a news release issued today, Bezos said his company would make use of the "pusher" pad escape system in its suborbital spaceship.
"The first test of our suborbital Crew Capsule is a big step on the way to safe, affordable space travel," he said. "This wouldn’t have been possible without NASA’s help, and the Blue Origin team worked hard and smart to design this system, build it, and pull off this test. Lots of smiles around here today. Gradatim Ferociter!"
That last phrase is Blue Origin's motto, which is Latin for "Step by Step, Courageously."
The latest step
The pad-escape test was the latest step in Bezos' decade-long effort to create a launch system suitable for space tourists as well as researchers and, eventually, orbit-bound astronauts. The 48-year-old Amazon.com founder, whose net worth is estimated at more than $23 billion, created Blue Origin in 2000 to follow through on his childhood dream of space travel.
"Blue Origin's goal is to work steadily toward developing human spaceflight capabilities," Brett Alexander, the company's director of business development and strategy, told me today. "Our goal is to lower the cost and increase the safety of human spaceflight to enable more people to fly."
Blue Origin
Blue Origin's New Shepard crew capsule rose to a height of 2,307 feet before deploying its parachutes for a safe descent.
Blue Origin
The gumdrop-shaped crew capsule set down 1,630 feet from the launch pad. This closeup view focuses on Blue Origin's logo and motto: "Gradatim Ferociter."
Blue Origin video shows a test of the pad-escape system for the crew capsule module.
Alexander said last week's pad-escape test in Texas and this month's successful test firing of Blue Origin's BE-3 liquid-hydrogen rocket engine at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi ranked among the biggest steps taken to date toward the company's goal. "This is a very big deal. ... Propulsion and crew escape are two of the fundamental building blocks of our system," Alexander said. "Those are the cornerstones, if you will."
Blue Origin is working toward the development of a New Shepard suborbital launch system with a propulsion module that can launch the crew capsule to an altitude beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) boundary of outer space. From that height, passengers can get a few minutes of weightlessness amid a view of the black sky above a curving Earth, while researchers can conduct useful experiments on the effects of the space environment.
Blue Origin hasn't laid out a specific schedule for commercial operations — nor has the company said anything about its pricing plan for spaceflights. But in order to be financially viable, the venture would probably have to be competitive with other suborbital spaceship companies, such as Space Adventures, Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace. Those companies are offering flights in the range of $95,000 to $200,000 per seat.
Alexander said "the key to both safety and affordability is reusability of the launch vehicle and a lot of practice — a high flight rate."
End-to-end tryout
The pad-escape test served as an end-to-end tryout for Blue Origin's crew capsule: A center-mounted solid-rocket engine from Aerojet lofted the capsule to a height of 2,307 feet (703 meters) under active thrust vector control. Then the capsule descended by parachute to a soft landing 1,630 feet (496 meters) downrange, at the company's test facility on ranchland owned by Bezos, near Van Horn, Texas.
Blue Origin showed the blastoff and landing in a video lasting a minute and 45 seconds.
Ed Mango, the manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in a space agency statement that "it was awesome to see a spacecraft NASA played a role in developing take flight."
"The progress Blue Origin has made on its suborbital and orbital capabilities really is encouraging for the overall future of human spaceflight," Mango said.
In an actual flight scenario, the escape system would be lit up only if Blue Origin's propulsion module experienced a problem serious enough to abort the flight. The passengers inside the crew capsule would be rocketed away to safety. If the flight proceeded normally, the crew capsule would separate from the propulsion module, coast to the edge of space, re-enter the atmosphere and descend to a parachute landing. The propulsion module, meanwhile, would autonomously perform its own rocket-powered vertical landing.
In August 2011, a prototype propulsion module went supersonic and rose to an altitude of 45,000 feet during a test flight — but when the vehicle became unstable, the flight had to be aborted and the rocket ship crashed to its doom. That's the kind of scenario that would bring the pad-escape system into play.
Alexander said Blue Origin was still working on the next version of the propulsion module. The old version used five kerosene-fueled engines, but the next-generation propulsion module will use a single hydrogen-fueled engine, he said. "It'll look a little different, but it's essentially the same size," he said.
In the past, Blue Origin has been somewhat reticent to talk about its activities but in light of the past month's successes, Alexander seemed to emphasize the sentiment behind the company's motto: step by step, courageously.
"Our overall development path certainly doesn't stop with suborbital," he said.
More about commercial spaceflight:
- Blue Origin's blue-sky ambitions
- NASA, FAA work out rules for spaceships
- Next steps in the new space race
- Cosmic Log archive on the commercial space race
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Watched the video. Impressive. BUT...they couldn't have used a system that kept the camera aimed at the capsule and it's chutes during the entire flight????
Why? A proper test uses multiple cameras at different angles and magnifications to fully understand what happens...or fails to. They've certainly done so before, with their reuseable booster tests, and edited the results together for public release, like this one.
It wouldn't surprise me if there was at least one camera in the capsule, as well.
Congrats on a successful test. I have to agree with Don H though, watching smoke on the launch pad gets old fast.
Keep pushing forward, congratulations.
The acceleration looked like a fairly high G event, the landing looked abrupt as well. Does anyone know what the G-loading on occupants would be?
I don't know what it is in this case, but there has only been one actual use of such a system so far, that was a Soyuz launcher that caught fire while on the pad. Their LES exposes the crew to 14 to 17 gees for five seconds.
Pretty harsh, but like a fighter ejection seat, you're using it only when you know you'd better get out of Dodge, right now...
That was a violent departure and NOT a soft landing. I applaud their efforts but I wonder if they have accelerometers and crash-test dummies on board to measure the G-forces astronauts would endure and then the rapid deceleration upon landing- I would recommend either rockets or airbag deployment for the last 10-20 feet- we aren't talking about much fuel for the rocket; just enough to soften the landing...
Then again, I am not a rocket scientist...PLAY ON!
That was a fairly typical flight for a launch abort system. Remember they are designed to outpace the main rocket when it is at full thrust. The launch abort on the Saturn V was similarly violent. These systems are designed as a last resort, it's pretty much a case of either you get out of there, or you end up in a fireball. It's very much like an ejection seat just bigger. So the astronauts experiencing minor injuries isn't as big of an issue when compared to getting hit by the exploding rocket you are trying to escape.
As for the landing, the Soyuz when it lands, hits the ground at 30 mph, so its a bit like getting into a car wreck, however the seats and restraints are designed for that impact, so while its certainly not very comfortable, it works very well. All of the American capsules landed in the water since it was a much softer landing, but Russia isn't as blessed with two large oceans on either side, rather with lots and lots of land hence the land based landings. So the addition of airbags, or rockets aren't needed, and only add unneeded risk to the flight.
Fair enough and you're right- it is a last resort option. I believe Boeing's capsule intends to use airbags for landing, that is why I suggested it...Still an impressive test and it should work as a last resort...Thanks for the input...Cheers!
"...but I wonder if they have accelerometers and crash-test dummies on board to measure the G-forces astronauts would endure and then the rapid deceleration upon landing-"
Count on it. The engineers already know what the acceleration should be, but testing a launch escape system is more than just making the rockets light up. I'm sure there was plenty of instrumentation inside.
"As for the landing, the Soyuz when it lands, hits the ground at 30 mph,"
Nope. They touch down at just a few feet per second. Soyuz also carries last-second braking rockets to insure this. If you've ever seen video of one if their capsules as it descends on chutes, there's a visible probe hanging about four feet down that triggers them on contact. That's why their landings (and Shenzhou, which uses the same basic design) create a serious dust cloud, it's stirred up by those rockets.
"...but Russia isn't as blessed with two large oceans on either side, rather with lots and lots of land hence the land based landings."
Check a map. They have plenty of Pacific coast (there's a big naval base at Vladivostok). And Soyuz can float, if it has to. Indeed one did land on a frozen lake.
But that's not the real reason, it's a matter of design philosophy. They're willing to pay the weight penalty of carrying those touchdown rockets all the way to orbit and back, in order to have landing zones that can be reached and serviced by a few helicopters and trucks, and not a naval task force. They simply judge it as worth the trouble. (the capsules of the Zond spacecraft, which almost became a manned circumlunar vehicle, were sometimes required to land in the Indian Ocean)
The US is also moving in that direction. As noted, Boeing's CST-100 will use airbags instead (though it can also float...I saw a recent video of a drop test of one into a tank at the Bigelow Aerospace facility), and this was once planned for Orion, too. The SpaceX Dragon will ultimately do rocket descent instead of parachutes (though they'll still be present) to the ground.
Blue Origin has quite the logo...
Did some searching, here's an explanation of the different parts of the logo:
http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-contents-of-and-the-inspiration-for-the-Blue-Origin-logo
Despite not being a CCDev3 award recipient and their secretive nature, you can't count out Blue Origin. Nice to see progress being made on a variety of fronts related to manned space.