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Bezos's Blue Origin Prepares Launch Facility
mhteas writes "Jeff Bezos's very quiet and private spaceship company Blue Origin is preparing to set up a launch facility in west Texas on 165,000 acres Bezos bought. There's a little more information about Blue Origin's plans too."
Yes, so quietly that we've been hearing about this for the better part of a week!
A similar story was reported previously on Slashdot here.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Blue Origin's Web site says the company doesn't intend to stop with a suborbital vehicle. The ultimate goal is to establish an "enduring human presence in space," and Bezos told Reuters in November that his company hopes to progress to orbital vehicles.
Sounds like he might be trying to obtain the Bigelow space race for a space station. 50 million dollars is a nice prize.
On a side note Google buys enough dark fibre to make a space elevator thus obtaining total control of the globe with the only cheap way to get to orbit.
UID 1000000 is just around the corner.
You can read more about this here.
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I hate to say this, but the problem with human space travel is that there is just nowhere to go. There are no alien civilizations (or even alien plant life) within reach. There are no habitable planets within reach (unless you count Mars or Venus, but as wastelands go, Antartica is paradise in comparison with either of those in terms of human habitation). It sucks, but it's true.
the patented one click launch button?
Am I the only one to believe that this kind of projects will soon be featured in not-so-future sci fi movies ??
Guess what item I will be adding to my "Amazon Wish List"
??????
"buffalo as far as the eye can see"!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
So if I sign up for Amazon Space Services, can I use my referral ID to generate revinue whenever someone goes to space after clicking on one of my links?
This flies in the face of science.
Perhaps Bezos may have to delay this venture a bit, after his prodigy (Amazon) cash's out my $10 billion credit on file? Either that, or it's time to audit the accounting system... Excerpt below from my latest Amazon order confirmation (today, 1/17/05)...LOL "...Shipping Method: Standard Shipping Shipping Preference: Group my items into as few shipments as possible Subtotal of Items: $39.94 Shipping & Handling: $12.45 ------ Total before tax: $52.39 Estimated Tax: $3.61 ------ Total: $56.00 Gift Certificates: - $9,999,999,999.00 ------ Total for this Order: $-9,999,999,943.00 Shipping estimate for these items: January 20, 2005 - January 20, 2005..." Who Hoo, now I can afford a ticket on his future space liner!
The craft will launch vertically, like the classic rocket ship of science-fiction movies, and will land vertically as well.
So do non-fiction rockets. Something tells me the author of the article may not realize this.
Hmm. I'm ALL for stuff like this, but I'm feeling a little gun shy after the last quiet thing into which he pumped a lot of money.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Have you been to West Texas? Come on. I think if it (somehow) managed to fall into the Gulf of Mexico nobody would miss it for a month.
Again, here's my rejected submission from the last time this story was run. The info in it is somewhat better, IMHO.
After years of secrecy and much speculation, Blue Origin has finally announced its plans to build and operate a privately-funded aerospace testing and operations center in West Texas. The company, run by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is "currently developing a sub-orbital space vehicle that will take off and land vertically to take three or more astronauts to the edge of space." Flight operations could begin as soon as six years from now. Hopefully this will be a significant step towards Bezos's dream of enabling "an enduring human presence in space."
I'd also like to remind the reader that Neal Stephenson (author of Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, and many pieces of quality sci-fi literature) works for Blue Origin. Here's what he said when asked about it in a slashdot interview from last year:
Like Spock on the deck of the Enterprise, I sit in the corner and await opportunities to jump out and yammer about Science. Unlike Spock, I don't have anyone reporting to me and I never get to sit in the captain's chair and aim the phasers. This is probably good.
Though the X-Prize is cool and good, Blue Origin never intended to compete for it. Consequently, it has had no effect, other than destroying productivity whenever a SpaceShipOne flight is being broadcast.
As for my visions of future private space flight: here I have to remind you of something, which is that, up to this point in the interview, I have been wearing my novelist hat, meaning that I talk freely about whatever I please. But private space flight is an area where I wear a different hat (or helmet). I do not freely disseminate my thoughts on this one topic because I have agreed to sell those thoughts to Blue Origin. Admittedly, this feels a little strange to a novelist who is accustomed to running his mouth whenever he feels like it. But it is a small price to pay for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a minor character in a Robert Heinlein novel.
Has anyone considered that this might all be a ploy to create a space-borne vessel capable of taking over the world? Yeah, I figured I was the only one. Just wait and see...
I read they were having some issues finding an appropriate launch site, and Mojave is too far for them to travel all the way from Mesquite, TX.
This looks like a good chance for Carmack & Co. to secure a decent launch site, if Bezos decides to rent out space (no pun intended) to third-parties to launch from their base.
No, thats 15 miles square. 15 square miles would be 9,600 acres. 16 miles square is 256 square miles, or 163,840 acres (close enough for this article).
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