Blue Origin first human flight

Re:Blue Origin first human flight by jacquesm on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @09:38AM (#27893533)

I don't see a race. I see one company that does space travel and two dilettantes, who may or may not one day actually do something useful.

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by sebzim4500 on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @11:43AM (#27895130)

There is a race, but the competitors are China and SpaceX.

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by BurningFrog on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @11:12AM (#27894731)

You're seeing the very first steps of a long race.

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by maverick-iceman on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @01:13PM (#27896449)

That's right. Up until we have 100,000 people living in space we are just winging it.

Winner of the race will be the dominant company in said community of 100,000 or the most socially influential person.

Bezos, Musk and Branson won't be alive to see that, so they are shooting for George Washington type influence, the one reserved for the founder, the guy who was at the beginning of it all and gets remembered .

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by api on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @09:40AM (#27893563)

Blue Origin is the closest to actually developing useful orbital and beyond-orbital capabilities. They have their own new engine design that's not quite as impressive as Raptor but not bad and their own super-heavy lift booster in development. The thing you just saw fly is similar to "Starhopper."

Virgin Galactic is an expensive carnival ride and has nothing close to orbital capability.

For those that don't know: getting to orbit (let alone beyond) requires way more delta-V (energy) than getting past the Karman line. The German V-2 is (I think) the first vehicle to do that, but it was nowhere even near orbit capable. The first photo from space was done by the USA with a captured and modified V-2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_No._13

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by JshWright on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @09:48AM (#27893653)

> The thing you just saw fly is similar to "Starhopper."

I think you mean "Grasshopper" (the Falcon 9 VTOL test mule from a few years back). New Shepard is less than half the size of Starhopper, and the BE-3 engine has ~25% of the thrust of the Raptor engine.

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by blhack on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @09:48AM (#27893652)

Virgin galactic does go to orbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Orbit

They launched satellites earlier this year.

The space tourism thing is just a part of what the company does.

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by JshWright on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @09:49AM (#27893667)

Virgin Galactic doesn't go to orbit, Virgin Orbit does.

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by api on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @09:51AM (#27893682)

Wow... I didn't even know about that. I stand corrected.

SpaceX is still way ahead though.

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Re:Blue Origin first human flight by JshWright on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @09:54AM (#27893720)

"Ahead" implies the same end goal... Neither Virgin Galactic (the suborbital space tourism company) or Virgin Orbit (the orbital small-sat launch company) have the same end goal as SpaceX.

That's like saying Lockheed Martin (maker of the F-35) is "way ahead" of Textron (maker of the Cessna). They have different goals entirely.

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