Jeff Bezos goes to space on a Blue Origin rocket

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Jeff Bezos goes to space on a Blue Origin rocket

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and three others landed safely after Blue Origin’s first flight to space with passengers aboard, a key milestone in the company’s effort to make space tourism viable.

The company’s capsule touched down in West Texas at about 8:22 a.m. local time Tuesday, roughly 10 minutes after it launched on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The crew experienced a few moments of weightlessness as the spaceship soared past the Karman line at an altitude of about 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth. The capsule then parachuted back.

“Best day ever,” Bezos said on a livestream of the suborbital flight provided by Blue Origin, shortly before the capsule landed.

[Bloomberg]
 
It was quite epic to watch the event. The capsule "thudded" down at 16 mph underneath the parachutes. That must have been a jolt to the system.
 
Just a reminder than planes and large boats also originally was a rich man's thing, and now it's affordable for many people.

NASA etc also spent millions on the space race, but from that we got many technological improvements, including GPS.

With this, yes, it's rich people, and from the timing (first Brandson now Bezo's, and I have a feeling Musk will want to join the party) you get the feeling of a __ measuring contest (which is unfortunate, as I'm sure it wasn't the plan), but from what I understand it was a dream of Bezo's from when he was a child. Gun hom sy plekkie in die son. Previous inventors in the 1900's was also rich people with private money that could do what they want, while the rest of society felt that money could be spent better - which might've been true.

They also use reusable boosters and new technology that will likely become the foundation of future ventures, and the millions that went into this flight pays many engineers, developers and so on, and the technology will likely be utilised in other applications, even ones very distant from space travel.

I think the idea with this type of travel is that people can go long distances, e.g. from USA to Australia in an hour or two, instead of the 18hr+ it takes to fly with a plane. We'll see how things pan out.

In the end it's their money, they can do what they want with it, and it is very likely a net-benefit for humanity.
 
wroemwroem said:
In the end it's their money, they can do what they want with it, and it is very likely a net-benefit for humanity.
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This. Except for the part where these ****ers don't pay their fair share of tax.

And in the case of Branson: he moves his business affairs out of the UK to avoid tax, then pleads with the government for a bailout for his airline company all while doing the Virgin Galactic "I am a wannabe astronaut" thing on the side.

I think that is the kinda thing people are upset about.
 
wroemwroem said:
Just a reminder than planes and large boats also originally was a rich man's thing, and now it's affordable for many people.

NASA etc also spent millions on the space race, but from that we got many technological improvements, including GPS.

With this, yes, it's rich people, and from the timing (first Brandson now Bezo's, and I have a feeling Musk will want to join the party) you get the feeling of a __ measuring contest (which is unfortunate, as I'm sure it wasn't the plan), but from what I understand it was a dream of Bezo's from when he was a child. Gun hom sy plekkie in die son. Previous inventors in the 1900's was also rich people with private money that could do what they want, while the rest of society felt that money could be spent better - which might've been true.

They also use reusable boosters and new technology that will likely become the foundation of future ventures, and the millions that went into this flight pays many engineers, developers and so on, and the technology will likely be utilised in other applications, even ones very distant from space travel.

I think the idea with this type of travel is that people can go long distances, e.g. from USA to Australia in an hour or two, instead of the 18hr+ it takes to fly with a plane. We'll see how things pan out.

In the end it's their money, they can do what they want with it, and it is very likely a net-benefit for humanity.
Click to expand...

This is just why you should always set lofty goals. I always do this on my end.. aim for the stars but if you end up at the moon people are impressed.

That being said.. in this case i think its a lesser thing.. they aimed low. Musk has proved this already so this "achievement" is not all that its made out to be and i'd say lesser has come from it especially when considering impact of doing so for tourism. I think of the 2.. ..Brandson's one kinda falls short of being upwardly useful. Bezos.. we will see maybe having another launch platform is useful?
 
Creag said:
It was quite epic to watch the event. The capsule "thudded" down at 16 mph underneath the parachutes. That must have been a jolt to the system.
Click to expand...
I think the BO capsule releases a short burst of compressed air right as it touches down. Making it just a tad more gradual than a abrupt stop. Probably similar to an emergency stop from 25km/h in a car.
 
and for a brief moment Elon Musk was the richest person on the planet.
 
The Trutherizer said:
I think the BO capsule releases a short burst of compressed air right as it touches down. Making it just a tad more gradual than a abrupt stop. Probably similar to an emergency stop from 25km/h in a car.
Click to expand...

I think the booster failed , its supposed to hit the ground at 1km/h

That looked like a very hard thump
 
all these theoretical barriers at different altitudes to claim you've been to "space"

neither Branson or Bezos could even escape earth's gravity ... can we define "space" as having orbited the earth at least once or being further up than whatever that level is and restart the billionaire dick measuring contest?
 
NarrowBandFtw said:
all these theoretical barriers at different altitudes to claim you've been to "space"

neither Branson or Bezos could even escape earth's gravity ... can we define "space" as having orbited the earth at least once or being further up than whatever that level is and restart the billionaire dick measuring contest?
Click to expand...
Quite like that fact that the only one who genuinely has a working, re-usable vehicle is not in this rush/push/my money thing.

Both of these are very much touristy and virgin is really just an alternate plane to me.
 
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