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Jeff Bezos's Space Company Reveals Some Secrets

Posted by Hemos on from the getting-some-details dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Jeff Bezos's commercial spaceflight company, Blue Origin, has kept its plans secret to better compete with rivals such as Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. But in order to build its launch facility in West Texas, it has revealed some details of its future operations: Blue Origin's Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) will carry three or more passengers on suborbital, ballistic trajectories to altitudes in excess of 325,000 feet above sea level. It will launch vertically and land vertically, and will use hydrogen peroxide and kerosene as propellants. It will operate autonomously under control of on-board computers, with no ground control. Blue Origin plans a maximum rate of 52 launches per year."

6 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Price? by MarkByers · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Any idea on how much tickets are going to cost?

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    I'll probably be modded down for this...
  2. Good trick by It+doesn't+come+easy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    [...]would operate autonomously under control of on-board computers,

    Didn't know anyone had systems relable enough for civilian passengers (i.e. not NASA, military, etc.) to do this yet (or maybe it's all in the disclaimer you have to sign beforehand :)...

    with no ground control during nominal flight conditions[...]

    So they will have ground control during less than nominal flight conditions?

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    The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
  3. No ground control? by suman28 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What about evasive evasive maneuvers? Ground clearance? and all the other details involved in space flight?

  4. Re:Space Vomit by raptor_87 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Approximately 1/3 of astronauts get space adaption syndrome. Basically, when you're in microgravity, the fluid in your inner ear doesn't settle, and so doesn't give your body a proper sense of balance. This does cause nausea and disorentation (lasting for up to a few days) in some people. Since these sub-orbital hops only give a few minutes of weightlessnesss, this will hopefully not be an issue.

  5. Sand Crash? by centauri · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, The Baroque Cycle, etc.) has taken a part-time job as a consultant for Blue Origins.

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    Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
  6. Re:Prediction... by rev_sanchez · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are a few standard hospital diagnosis codes for spacecraft accidents:
    spacecraft accident ground crew
    spacecraft accident occupant
    spacecraft accident person (non-crew)
    falling in a spacecraft (I guess that means floating into something)
    and the generic spacecraft accident

    Being almost too young to remember Challenger we'd kid around about these at work until Columbia.

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