12-13-2017, 05:28 PM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jerry Irvine
They are not fixated on the Karman line, but the repeatability and the experience. Once the experience is achieved numerous times they will update to orbital flights, then beyond.
They talk little and simply do more.
Just Jerry
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I agree. Their main interest is achieving airliner-like reliability of the vehicle (or approaching that as closely as can be done with a rocket vehicle), the features of which they will incorporate into their New Glenn orbital vehicle as well as into their New Shepard suborbital vehicle. What they're doing now with New Shepard is not unlike the X-15's early test flights, where they "worked up" to its suborbital flights into space, which the program could then undertake with confidence. Also:
New Shepard's short, stubby booster presents (as Jeff Bezos has said) a "worst-case scenario" as far as flight control during powered ascent--and *especially* during powered descent and landing--are concerned. Perfecting this with New Shepard puts them in an excellent position with regard to New Glenn (its booster will encounter greater re-entry heating than New Shepard's, but as SpaceX's Falcon 9 has shown, high-velocity tail-first first stage re-entries and "pinpoint" powered landings are entirely practical). |