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Blue Origin first human flight

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Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#241

Post by _moof »

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.

Honestly these days even the “real” astronauts are basically passengers. The systems are so heavily automated, including anomaly response, and the parts that aren’t are mostly done by ground operators. Crew Dragon doesn’t even have a stick. It’s not the ‘60s anymore, which in many ways is good. But glamorous it ain’t. Let’s not forgot that the end result of all this will be to make spaceflight as pedestrian as air travel, an activity that hasn’t had a shred of its initial sparkle for decades.

I think w0de0 got to the heart of the matter (elsewhere in this thread) with their comment about astronauts being associated with public service. That rings true for me as to the source of the insult.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#242

Post by peshooo »

Axsuul wrote: post #159

Really clean launch! I think this was the first time a reusable rocket was landed with humans onboard? It must’ve fell 100k feet at the end in less than a minute which must’ve been nuts.

The capsule with the humans separated from the rocket a little bit before they hit the 100km attitude mark. Then it landed with parachutes.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#243

Post by throwaway894345 »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #200
publicola1990 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>"Finally it was decided to use military pilots from mostly a PR point of view." I suspect that decision making process was dramatized in The Right Stuff. Test pilots make sense for several reasons: they already understand aeronautical concepts, are used to g-forces, have experience with state of the art machines, have a high risk tolerance, and are already familiar with following orders.

> are already familiar with following orders.

Probably more than this, following protocols but having an ability to think for themselves on their feet (as opposed to a grunt following minutia orders).

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#244

Post by rrss »

q1w2 wrote: post #107
admissionsguy wrote: post #12

Mixed feelings. I suppose it's important to have competition/alternatives to SpaceX, but does it have to be done in such a sluggish manner by one the most unlikable people in the world?

I don't see this sort of joy-riding as a material competition to what SpaceX is doing. It's not even clear to me that that is their objective. These sub-orbital flights are not interesting - scientifically nor engineeringly.

Their objective is to make money through space tourism.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#245

Post by simonh »

agloeregrets wrote: post #237
detritus wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The best part is that while these two billionaires do their 'space hop', Elon is laughing the whole time and probably texted Jeff Bezos asking 'Hey have you seen my car? NVM, sorry, you probably were not close enough to see it.' Edit: To be clear, I'm referring to the obvious feud with Jeff Bezos, I know he is friends with Richard.

He was actually at the Virgin Galactic launch and is good friends with Richard Branson. He was having fun, but not for the reason you suggest.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#246

Post by jcun4128 »

comeonseriously wrote: post #156
mygoodaccount wrote: post #141

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

What if we have engineering degrees? That change anything? Edit: That being said, depending on who I am talking to it ranges from "I do computers" to "I am a computer programmer", and very rarely use "engineer" unless I am referring to my actual degree (BSCpE).

Yeah that one I struggle with too. I don't have a degree/can't call myself an engineer but my contract/pay is for Sr. SWE which I also don't consider myself a Sr. so idk... Generally go with SWD.

Granted in my job it's so strict/refined... tech designs, unit/visual regression testing/QA/TA that sort of thing... it's not like I can just write code on the fly/release it out there without it going through the tests and several people.

I'm definitely not the caliber of a developer that thinks of tasks in Log N or something. Least path algos and what not I'm a typical dev and I'm alright with that ultimately I am a tinkerer and end goal is FIRE.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#248

Post by dev_tty01 »

agloeregrets wrote: post #237
detritus wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The best part is that while these two billionaires do their 'space hop', Elon is laughing the whole time and probably texted Jeff Bezos asking 'Hey have you seen my car? NVM, sorry, you probably were not close enough to see it.' Edit: To be clear, I'm referring to the obvious feud with Jeff Bezos, I know he is friends with Richard.

https://www.whereisroadster.com

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#249

Post by chippiewill »

chasd00 wrote: post #101
themgt wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Falcon 1 put a payload into orbit though, so it's really not the same. Falcon 9's first flight was less than 2 years after Falcon 1 made it to orbit. For myriad reasons Blue can't just "scale up quickly" in any meaningful way from NS to New Glenn, hence why it's going to take them 8+ years between the first NS and first NG launches. Being realistic about this is not cynical and negative.

that's a good point, i think orbit was the minimum planned for Falcon1. I don't believe SpaceX every just went to the karman line and back. I think all of their flights have been either crashes or fully orbital.

> Think all of their flights have been either crashes or fully orbital.

Certainly applies to the operational launches of all their rocket vehicles, however they've also done suborbital test flights with with Grasshopper, F9R, Starhopper, Starship (and maybe Super Heavy soon as well depending on if they do a sub-orbital with that first).

The important difference is that SpaceX has never considered the Karman line as a target in its own right (somewhat rightly, its only value is for "whelming" space tourism).

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#250

Post by decebalus1 »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #206
eplanit wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I go on an ocean cruise I'm a Sailor?

The analogy is tough because as far as I know there isn't an official definition of what a sailor is. Nor is there an internationally recognized registry like the "Fédération Aéronautique Internationale" which keeps track of people it considers Astronauts/Cosmonauts/Taiknonauts, etc.

There is an official definition of what a seaman/sailor is. Admiralty law is a thing [1][2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman_status_in_United_States...

[2] https://www.maritimeinjuryguide.org/maritime-lawsuit/qualifi...

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