Blue Origin is a competitor with SpaceX in commercial spaceflight but they make a really strange competitor since they pop up once in a while to do something cool and then disappear again but they never seem to consolidate anything. For example, Blue Origin has also managed a soft landing of the first-stage booster rocket but they didn't push the test too far. They did not test under heavy loads whereas SpaceX has been bringing boosters back after booting satellites into orbit. At the Rockhouse, we call that Peek-a-Boo but we don't see a reason for it.
There was an article today to tout the Blue Origin space capsule and it's a luxy bit of work but its future is nebulous based on the experimentation we have seen so far. Take a look:
Being an astronaut was never like this before, huh? (CNN: Blue Origin unveils space capsule with 'largest windows in space')
However, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Blue Origin, won't be launching astronauts at least not in the short term since they only aim for space tourism. This kind of thrill ride approach as we have seen with Richard Branson looks impressive to start but then it peters out. Branson's outfit hasn't done anything in quite a while and it's not even clear what Blue Origin is doing.
There's consideration of using the new commercial dock on the International Space Station but that also is nebulous since Blue Origin hasn't built a booster which can do it.
Ed: they're all over the place
It does seem that way.
A moment of deep respect for the Forever King of Space Tourism, Alan Shepard. He got the cool reaction but his flight was suborbital. John Glenn went into orbit not so long after and Alan Shepard wasn't remembered so much but he remains the Forever King as he was definitely the first American in space.
Note: the Rockhouse doesn't mean even a tiny bit of disrespect toward John Glenn since we know The Right Stuff when we see it.
Elon Musk must have taken one look at space tourism and dismissed it as a waste of brain cycles. He's right because that stage of space exploration won't last long, particularly when everyone else got past it in the early Sixties. When spacecraft get to docking with space stations, everyone aboard is an actual astronaut rather than some touring yokels in Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. Space tourism will already be over at that stage.
Think it through, mates, since space tourism gives you all the worst of spaceflight but hardly any of the good stuff. You will have to go through the grinding g-force of a launch and all the unpleasantness of a landing by parachute but there's little of the beauty in the middle. The launch never gets to orbit and instead takes a parabolic trajectory which gives up some weightlessness in the middle for a few minutes but that's it.
Ed: the rich will buy anything so long as it's expensive!
In this case, it does seem so, mate.
The Rockhouse would like to see Blue Origin succeed and provide great competition for SpaceX but this ain't it. Competing with Branson for tourism is the low end but competing with Elon Musk goes for the stars and that's not some lame poetic exaggeration because he's the type of man who will take us there.
Jeff Bezos seems to want to be such a man as well but his approach is too mixed-up to tell just now if it will work. We do hope Blue Origin will get things focused and get on with it. Commercial spaceflight gets more exciting almost by the day and launches are taking place at an incredible pace now. It's unusual to go a week without a launch from somewhere and Blue Origin will need to get cracking to stay in this game. These are some fast movers and the Rockhouse really digs how they play.
There was an article today to tout the Blue Origin space capsule and it's a luxy bit of work but its future is nebulous based on the experimentation we have seen so far. Take a look:
Being an astronaut was never like this before, huh? (CNN: Blue Origin unveils space capsule with 'largest windows in space')
However, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Blue Origin, won't be launching astronauts at least not in the short term since they only aim for space tourism. This kind of thrill ride approach as we have seen with Richard Branson looks impressive to start but then it peters out. Branson's outfit hasn't done anything in quite a while and it's not even clear what Blue Origin is doing.
There's consideration of using the new commercial dock on the International Space Station but that also is nebulous since Blue Origin hasn't built a booster which can do it.
Ed: they're all over the place
It does seem that way.
A moment of deep respect for the Forever King of Space Tourism, Alan Shepard. He got the cool reaction but his flight was suborbital. John Glenn went into orbit not so long after and Alan Shepard wasn't remembered so much but he remains the Forever King as he was definitely the first American in space.
Note: the Rockhouse doesn't mean even a tiny bit of disrespect toward John Glenn since we know The Right Stuff when we see it.
Elon Musk must have taken one look at space tourism and dismissed it as a waste of brain cycles. He's right because that stage of space exploration won't last long, particularly when everyone else got past it in the early Sixties. When spacecraft get to docking with space stations, everyone aboard is an actual astronaut rather than some touring yokels in Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. Space tourism will already be over at that stage.
Think it through, mates, since space tourism gives you all the worst of spaceflight but hardly any of the good stuff. You will have to go through the grinding g-force of a launch and all the unpleasantness of a landing by parachute but there's little of the beauty in the middle. The launch never gets to orbit and instead takes a parabolic trajectory which gives up some weightlessness in the middle for a few minutes but that's it.
Ed: the rich will buy anything so long as it's expensive!
In this case, it does seem so, mate.
The Rockhouse would like to see Blue Origin succeed and provide great competition for SpaceX but this ain't it. Competing with Branson for tourism is the low end but competing with Elon Musk goes for the stars and that's not some lame poetic exaggeration because he's the type of man who will take us there.
Jeff Bezos seems to want to be such a man as well but his approach is too mixed-up to tell just now if it will work. We do hope Blue Origin will get things focused and get on with it. Commercial spaceflight gets more exciting almost by the day and launches are taking place at an incredible pace now. It's unusual to go a week without a launch from somewhere and Blue Origin will need to get cracking to stay in this game. These are some fast movers and the Rockhouse really digs how they play.
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