Roundup: Bezos' Blue Origin pushes its rocket "to its limits" with high-altitude test of crew escape motor

Source: Xinhua    2018-07-19 06:15:31

LOS ANGELES, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Blue Origin, the U.S. aerospace company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has launched its New Shepard, a reusable suborbital space vehicle designed to take tourists to the edge of space and back, for the ninth time on Wednesday during a high altitude escape motor test that pushed the rocket "to its limits".

After several brief holds, the New Shepard, a reusable rocket-capsule duo, rocket took off at 8:11 a.m. local time (1511 GMT) from Blue Origin's sprawling test site north of Van Horn, Texas.

"On Mission 9, we're firing the crew capsule escape motor at the highest altitude ever. We are stressing the rocket to test that astronauts can get away from an anomaly at any time during flight," the company said in a statement.

The duration of the launch lasts around two and half minutes, at which point the engine cuts off.

The crew capsule fired its escape motor at the right time, video shows. That's the system that could help save the lives of future passengers if something were to go wrong during the climb through Earth's atmosphere.

From the looks of Wednesday's video, the capsule flew into space, while the booster droped back down and landed on the ground. Using a pair of parachutes, the capsule, meanwile, coasted back to Earth.

Both the booster and the capsule landed safely after liftoff.

"Crew Capsule looks great even after it was pushed hard by the escape test. Astronauts would have had an exhilarating ride and safe landing," Bezos tweeted.

Over 20,000 people tuned into Blue Origin's YouTube live stream to watch the live separation test of the crew capsule from the rocket booster and everything preformed as expected.

During the test flight, the rocket was loaded up with both the Blue Origin test dummy, nicknamed "Mannequin Skywalker," who took his third flight to space today, and a host of science payloads.

This successful test is a huge milestone for the rocket company, which appears to be getting closer to flying humans into space on New Shepard.

The entire mission took less than 12 minutes to unfold, with the capsule hitting a maximum speed of 3598 kilometers per hour and height of 119 kilometers.

It is one of the New Shepard's most critical test to date, which has demonstrated a key safety feature for space tourists and scientists riding on the company's future rockets.

The most recent New Shepard launch, which took place in April went smoothly as well, with the rocket reaching almost 107 kilometers, slightly higher than the company's typical target of about 100 kilometers, the altitude widely accepted as the boundary line for space.

The first New Shepard launch occurred in December 2017, with six other flights launching on a predecessor New Shepard, which Blue Origin has since retired.

The company is working on a larger rocket called New Glenn that could directly compete with SpaceX for commercial launch contracts, but it isn't expected to be ready until 2020.

The New Shepard program is designed to carry tourists as well as commercial payloads and scientific experiments on brief trips to suborbital space.

Editor: yan
Related News
Xinhuanet

Roundup: Bezos' Blue Origin pushes its rocket "to its limits" with high-altitude test of crew escape motor

Source: Xinhua 2018-07-19 06:15:31

LOS ANGELES, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Blue Origin, the U.S. aerospace company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has launched its New Shepard, a reusable suborbital space vehicle designed to take tourists to the edge of space and back, for the ninth time on Wednesday during a high altitude escape motor test that pushed the rocket "to its limits".

After several brief holds, the New Shepard, a reusable rocket-capsule duo, rocket took off at 8:11 a.m. local time (1511 GMT) from Blue Origin's sprawling test site north of Van Horn, Texas.

"On Mission 9, we're firing the crew capsule escape motor at the highest altitude ever. We are stressing the rocket to test that astronauts can get away from an anomaly at any time during flight," the company said in a statement.

The duration of the launch lasts around two and half minutes, at which point the engine cuts off.

The crew capsule fired its escape motor at the right time, video shows. That's the system that could help save the lives of future passengers if something were to go wrong during the climb through Earth's atmosphere.

From the looks of Wednesday's video, the capsule flew into space, while the booster droped back down and landed on the ground. Using a pair of parachutes, the capsule, meanwile, coasted back to Earth.

Both the booster and the capsule landed safely after liftoff.

"Crew Capsule looks great even after it was pushed hard by the escape test. Astronauts would have had an exhilarating ride and safe landing," Bezos tweeted.

Over 20,000 people tuned into Blue Origin's YouTube live stream to watch the live separation test of the crew capsule from the rocket booster and everything preformed as expected.

During the test flight, the rocket was loaded up with both the Blue Origin test dummy, nicknamed "Mannequin Skywalker," who took his third flight to space today, and a host of science payloads.

This successful test is a huge milestone for the rocket company, which appears to be getting closer to flying humans into space on New Shepard.

The entire mission took less than 12 minutes to unfold, with the capsule hitting a maximum speed of 3598 kilometers per hour and height of 119 kilometers.

It is one of the New Shepard's most critical test to date, which has demonstrated a key safety feature for space tourists and scientists riding on the company's future rockets.

The most recent New Shepard launch, which took place in April went smoothly as well, with the rocket reaching almost 107 kilometers, slightly higher than the company's typical target of about 100 kilometers, the altitude widely accepted as the boundary line for space.

The first New Shepard launch occurred in December 2017, with six other flights launching on a predecessor New Shepard, which Blue Origin has since retired.

The company is working on a larger rocket called New Glenn that could directly compete with SpaceX for commercial launch contracts, but it isn't expected to be ready until 2020.

The New Shepard program is designed to carry tourists as well as commercial payloads and scientific experiments on brief trips to suborbital space.

[Editor: huaxia]
010020070750000000000000011105521373338921