Bezos-Funded Spaceship Misfires

[CWOJackson]

An unmanned spaceship funded by Internet billionaire Jeff Bezos (http://topics.wsj.com/person/b/jeff-bezos/698) went out of control and was destroyed during a recent test flight, highlighting the dramatic risks of private space ventures.

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The vertical takeoff and landing spacecraft, developed by closely held Blue Origin LLC, was on a suborbital flight from the company's West Texas spaceport last week, U.S. government and industry officials said, when ground personnel lost contact and control of the vehicle. The exact nature and cause of the failure were unclear, but remnants of the spacecraft could provide clues for investigators.
Blur Origin said it lost control of the vehicle at 45,000 feet and the spacecraft was destroyed during the test flight as a precaution. Parts of the vehicle were recovered on the ground and are now being analyzed by company experts, according to government and industry officials.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904716604576546712416626614.html#i xzz1WpxsFJAt

[AndyG43]

That is a real shame. Some of these privately funded projects are really quite interesting, although I have felt for a while that Blue Origin were being a touch optimistic in some of their press releases - the "New Sheppard" is basically "son of DC-X", it's quite exciting, but I feel they are trying to take too big a leap, when smaller ones might have been more appropriate.

My favourite of them all has to be Space-X. They seem to be doing things right, building up the program step by step; provided vested interest doesn't stop them, I think they could really revitalise the whole space launch community. They have recently announced a mission to send a Dragon capsule to the ISS; although it is essentially a test flight, this is a huge milestone, and potentially removes the reliance on Soyuz as the only method of supply to ISS.

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

And of course Richard Branson, Paul Allen and Burt Rutan are working away in the Mojave Desert, moving closer to the day when they will start their regular sub-orbital flights.

http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/captain-mackay-takes-to-the-sky/

[aeromed202]

Sadly I don't really have much interest in going for a ride. I just saw an article describing how much debris we have in orbit. Apparently the Chinese added to the known number of objects by testing a missile they used to blow a satellite to smithereens perhaps before considering that all those bits don't just disappear. That plus a chance collision just made space travel reeelly risky. Think movie Twister.

http://news.yahoo.com/space-junk-littering-orbit-might-cleaning-173155267.html

[ThinkingManNeil]

Damn shame about Blue Origin but, unfortunately, these sorts of things are ultimately inevitable when the risk quotient goes up as it always does with any form of spaceflight. I do think that commercialized spaceflight could, and likely will, bring about some tremendous innovations in propulsion and spacecraft design just as the commercialization of aviation did pre- and post-WW2. I do, however, think that you won't see a mass influx of space tourism happen until a much more efficient and cost-effective means of getting people into orbit other than chemical rockets; perhaps the often imagined "space elevator" (http://www.spaceelevator.com/).

And AeroMed you're dead right about the growing space junk crisis; if they don't get a handle on that SOON, it'll really gum up any plans for development.

Sub-orbital space hops sound like an extravagant birthday present for the uber-wealthy. Orbital hotels and space stations would likely be more successful, but again that success would be predicated on a more efficient earth-to-orbit launch system, especially a heavy lift aspect to launch components and material for such structures. Personally, being a product of the Apollo Era, I've always wanted to go to the Moon; I'd leave Mars and the other planets and their moons to the real explorers, but I'd be happy seeing the Moon. Just imagine camping out in some self-contained lunar RV on the Moon's far side during what would be a full Moon for those on Earth - no Earth visible, no Sun, just the rolling, cratered lunar highlands dimly lit by the light of countless stars, peering out into the depths of our own galaxy and beyond. I think that would be shattering.

N.

[CWOJackson]

Just imagine camping out in some self-contained lunar RV on the Moon's far side during what would be a full Moon for those on Earth - no Earth visible, no Sun, just the rolling, cratered lunar highlands dimly lit by the light of countless stars, peering out into the depths of our own galaxy and beyond. I think that would be shattering.

N.

And the flashing lights of the Domino's Pizza delivery shuttle.