![]() SpaceX and Blue Origin are among several U.S. His company contracts with NASA to resupply the International Space Station and is building a launch site about 600 miles from Van Horn, on the southernmost Texas Gulf coast, with the much-publicized goal of sending humans to Mars. The presence of Blue Origin, LLC, the brainchild of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, barely registers in nearby Van Horn, a way station along Interstate 10, a full decade after he began buying land in one of Texas' largest and most remote counties.Īt the opposite end - of Texas and the competition - is the highly visible SpaceX venture, led by PayPal co-founder and electric car maker Elon Musk. ‘Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return.’Įlon Musk, the PayPal co-founder and electric car maker, is competing against Bezos to develop a re-usable rocketĪn isolated edge of vast West Texas is home to a highly secretive part of the 21st-century space race, one of two being directed in the Lone Star State by internet billionaires whose personalities and corporate strategies seem worlds apart. ‘The in-space separation of the crew capsule from the propulsion module was perfect,’ Mr Bezso said in a blog post. Once it reached its peak altitude, accelerating at 3Gs, the booster separated from the capsule. This is four miles (six kilometres) short of the official boundary of space - the Karman Line - although there does not seem to be any problems with reaching this boundary in future. In video released by Blue Origin, the booster - using liquid hydrogen and oxygen - lifts the New Shepard vehicle to an altitude of 58 miles (94km). This is known as vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL).Īnd Blue Origin is also much more secretive - with this successful test flight taking many by surprise. ![]() The difference, however, is that while Galactic relies on using a plane to slowly rise into the atmosphere, New Shepard takes off straight up and lands back on the ground. The cost of a ticket has not yet been announced, but estimates suggest it will be around £130,000 $200,000 - similar to a flight on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. In addition, the New Shepard vehicle will provide opportunities for researchers to fly experiments into space and a microgravity environment.įor this, the first test flight of the entire architecture, it was unmanned - but the company hopes to soon start taking customers into space. The Crew Capsule will go on to coast to the edge of space, providing astronauts with a view to the curvature of the Earth and the beauty of our planet.Īfter descent and re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the Crew Capsule will land under parachutes no more than a few miles from the launch site. The Propulsion Module will finish its flight, descend to Earth, and autonomously perform a rocket-powered vertical landing. The Propulsion Module then shuts off its rocket engines and separates from the Crew Capsule. It includes a Crew Capsule carrying six astronauts atop a separate rocket-powered Propulsion Module, launched from the firm's West Texas Launch Site.įollowing liftoff, the combined vehicles accelerate for approximately two and a half minutes. The New Shepard system will take astronauts to space on suborbital journeys.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |