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Blue Origin first human flight

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Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#171

Post by mavhc »

q1w2 wrote: post #99
jstsch wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. This really felt like an amusement park ride for rich people. Like a throw towards the edge of orbit. I'm sure there is some innovation coming out of this, but compared to the insane progress of SpaceX it's super underwhelming.

I agree that there's no scientific or engineering achievement here and that this ride is essentially joyriding. I disagree that we should deride rich people for spending money the way they want. I splurge on things sometimes as well. Unlike a lot of modern social media, I don't think there's anything inherently immoral about being wealthy. If someone has an argument about what these specific people did that was speci…

Problem is you only get rich by taking money for other people's work.

But as long as everyone also pays to clean up the pollution they cause, not terrible.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#172

Post by publicola1990 »

mendigou wrote: post #128

I found it annoying, even a bit insulting, that they kept referring to the people in the capsule as "astronauts". I could understand if they did it for Wally Funk, as she actually did the training back in the day, but the rest? When rich people were allowed in the ISS they were called "tourists", which is befitting.

I find strange that line of thinking. That NASA and other space agencies use highly trained personnel like military pilots for space missions seems largely a historical accident.

In "The Right Stuff", there is discussion on this topic, initially trapeeze artists were thought to be the ideal personnel for the space program due to the high dynamic forces they routinely experience. Another opinion being considered was to use death row prisoners. Finally it was decided to use military pilots from mostly a PR point of view.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#174

Post by tshaddox »

l30n4da5 wrote: post #142
finnh wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the "serve as commander or crew member" part?

are the members of the crew of Blue Origin 3 not 'crew members'?

Is a passenger on a commercial flight a crew member? Would you call every passenger an “airman”?

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#175

Post by [deleted] »

jpgvm wrote: post #144
ekianjo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've seen SpaceX doing much more complicated missions or it's just not that big of a deal. Also, SpaceX knows how to put on a show. In comparison this felt like an amateur video. (not to diminish the mission itself, just how it was filmed).

To be fair SpaceX also has had practice, go back and watch some earlier launches and they have the same amateur vibe.

[deleted]

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#176

Post by bob1029 »

detritus wrote: post #112
marshallbananas wrote: post #8

This felt so underwhelming. I don't know if it's because I've seen SpaceX doing much more complicated missions or it's just not that big of a deal. They got about two minutes of zero G and came down immediately. You can experience that for much longer with a regular plane, for much less money. It really shouldn't count as space travel unless they go into orbit around Earth.

The thing that amuses me is that if SpaceX can make Starship and the Heavy booster work, they could actually come up with a tourism/joyride that would blow these piffling jumps by Branson and Bezos into irrelevance. If you can send 50-100 people on an actual orbiting jaunt, perhaps a night in 'space rocket hotel', rich folk would gladly pay millions, which makes the business case a lot more compelling. Then they'd ju…

Out of all of these space-faring corporations, SpaceX has orders of magnitude more aerospace infrastructure and assets to work with. Their entire ethos since inception was getting humanity to Mars, not sending a handful of wealthy people into suborbital trajectories. Elon/SpaceX have certainly participated in a lot of PR throughout, but it always seemed to be along an engineering axis, not some feel-good emotional axis (although many were moved by witnessing double booster landings regardless).

The construction of a massive space port in one of the more desolate places in America is a pretty damn good starting point. Doesn't take a magician to round that out with an airport, hotels, convention centers, restaurants, etc. I believe there is already an uptick in real estate on South Padre Island and talks about some bridge to better connect the island.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#177

Post by thehappypm »

sega_sai wrote: post #77

Obviously everybody (Branson/Bezos) is entitled to spend their cash in whatever way they want. But, if they are making a spectacle of it, publicise it and promote it like some big achievement, then those people should be prepared to take some criticism. And in my opinion, I see the last two launches as indeed amusement rides for billionaires and a strong argument for better taxation policies. In contrary, what Musk d…

Most billionaires build mansions and buy islands and offshore their money. Bezos and Branson are doing R&D. Bill Gates does philanthropy. There's a spectrum of wastefulness, and I wholeheartedly applaud billionaires doing R&D that our governments seem to have lost interest in.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#178

Post by airstrike »

dhosek wrote: post #165
mygoodaccount wrote: post #141

I feel the same way when software developers call themselves engineers.

In certain industries, the titles often have little to do with the work. In banking, it seems, everyone is a vice president (I had a moment of panic when I had a job offer from a bank as a programmer and the offer said that I would be hired as a vice president). In publishing, everyone is an editor. The title managing editor generally has no editorial duties—it's largely dealing with the administrative/business dutie…

Interestingly, in banking one gets promoted from Vice President to Director which is the exact opposite as anywhere else...

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#179

Post by nautilius »

publicola1990 wrote: post #172
mendigou wrote: post #128

I found it annoying, even a bit insulting, that they kept referring to the people in the capsule as "astronauts". I could understand if they did it for Wally Funk, as she actually did the training back in the day, but the rest? When rich people were allowed in the ISS they were called "tourists", which is befitting.

I find strange that line of thinking. That NASA and other space agencies use highly trained personnel like military pilots for space missions seems largely a historical accident. In "The Right Stuff", there is discussion on this topic, initially trapeeze artists were thought to be the ideal personnel for the space program due to the high dynamic forces they routinely experience. Another opinion being considered was t…

Exactly. Literal monkeys and dogs did the job, before Gagarin or Shepard.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#180

Post by thehappypm »

la6471 wrote: post #58

Memo to Bezos/Brandon/Musk: Great , but now can you guys do something about reducing human suffering due to climate change? Like potentially developing technologies for sucking off CO2 and other harmful gases off our atmosphere? Or how about cancer cure or anti aging or something that helps humanity?

I wouldn't lump Musk in here. Musk is divisive as hell but his companies are hardly wasteful. Tesla is leading the car industry towards an oil-free future and also has a healthy solar panel division. SpaceX is opening up space exploration. Even things like the Boring Company and Hyperloop are aiming to make human life better.
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