Blue Origin Aerospace (updates)

By DocM
in Science News & Discussion

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Grand Master

Blue-Vision

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Posted

Yep. No biggie ... well it is but it isn't. It's a natural part of Engineering. Find out the failure points during development so that those failure points can be addressed and eliminated. :yes:

 

They'll learn more from failures sometimes than from successes. SpaceX has said that on numerous occasions -- that's how Falcon-9's learned how to land, after all. We saw them get closer and closer ... tweak this parameter, then tweak a couple over here, and so on, 'till it "just works".

 

Blue will follow the same steps. They've got a very smart, capable group of people who know what they're doing. To echo Shotwell's sentiment, if Blue wasn't destroying gear then we should be worried.

 

Nope ... BE-4 will be just fine. Take this as a good omen. Blowing a generator means that the turbopump is outputting harder than expected. That's a good thing. :D(Y) Means there's power to spare, which means the BE-4 is gonna be that much better of an engine.

 

SpaceX likes that kind of competition -- because the Engineers on both sides will start trying to "one-up" each other with innovation and great hardware. In this scenario, we all win. :yes: 

  • 3 months later...
Grand Master

DocM

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Making very large launchers economical is a reusability side effect. 

 

For example, why do 200 launches to field a large constellation of medium sized satellites when you can do it with 30-50 launches on a large reusable rocket?

 

Large-diameter cores and fairings also allow for very large solar arrays, which would be very useful for larger solar electric satellites and deep space probes.

 

The military is interested in  that, plus large fairings can deploy very large antenna diameter listening satellites and radar-sats.

 

There's also that Blue has to keep up with SpaceX, whose subscale-ITS launcher is said to be a 9 meter core. That's larger than SLS's 8.4 m, and given the usual formula for maximum fairing diameter should allow for one of about 12 to 14 m.

 

Blue will have to field New Armstrong soon after New Glenn to keep up with that. 

Edited by DocM
  • Blue-Vision
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Grand Master

Blue-Vision

Posted
Posted

Yep. Everyone, everyone, is basing their future plans upon the "new measuring sticks" -- and quite frankly it's BO's and SpaceX's game now. A fresh, pompous breeze that has blown through and knocked every other complacent player in the game on their collective posterior.

 

Blue Origin has read the writing on the wall and adjusted their plans accordingly (good), while the "Old Guard" seems unable to come to terms with what they're even dealing with. And sure, Blue needs to run hard to keep up but I think they'll be okay. Nothing wrong with being Silver, having done the same training as the Gold Medalist, if it means you're still a mile and a half ahead of the Bronze Medal contestant, eh?

 

And I still like their new engine. I like Raptor better, buuut ... the BE-4 has got some jam. :yes: 

  • 2 months later...
Grand Master

DocM

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

They haven't quoted a price yet, but most  analysts say an initial price of $50,000-$100,000 is likely. Of course that may be significantly off either way, and after some of the development is amortized the price is likely to drop.

Edited by DocM
  • 3 weeks later...
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