Blue Origin reaches orbit on first flight of its titanic New Glenn rocket

[beefheart]

Glad to see this, even if it is another asshole billionaire. Its taken Blue Origin a very long time to get to this point. I watched a replay of the launch today, and yeah, that thing literally crawled off the pad. But the blue flame was cool.

Blue Origin reaches orbit on first flight of its titanic New Glenn rocket

Bypassing engine chill issues and a wayward boat, Blue Origin got to T-0.

arstechnica.com

Early on Thursday morning, a Saturn V-sized rocket ignited its seven main engines, a prelude to lifting off from Earth.
But then, the New Glenn rocket didn't move.
And still, the engines produced their blue flame, furiously burning away methane.
The thrust-to-weight of the rocket must have been in the vicinity of 1.0 to 1.2, so the booster had to burn a little liquid methane and oxygen before it could begin to climb appreciably. But finally, seconds into the mission, New Glenn did begin to climb. It was slow, ever so slow. But it flew true.
After that the vehicle performed like a champion. The first stage burned for more than three minutes before the second stage separated at an altitude of 70 km. Then, the upper stage's two BE-3U engines appeared to perform flawlessly, pushing the Blue Ring pathfinder payload toward orbit. These engines burned very nearly for 10 minutes before shutting down, having reached an orbital velocity of 28,800 kph.

For the first time since its founding, nearly a quarter of a century ago, Blue Origin had reached orbit. The long-awaited debut launch of the New Glenn rocket, a super-heavy lift vehicle developed largely with private funding, had come. And it was a smashing success.

 

[WorldWatcher]

To bad the booster recovery didn't work.

But they will get there.

WW

 

[eman623]

One side's billionaires are working to advance space travel, even engaging in a billionaire-vs-billionaire competition to see who can get us back to the moon first.

The other side's billionaires are working equally hard to get Marxist DAs elected and tear apart the fabric of society.

 

[Gordy327]

Glad to see this, even if it is another asshole billionaire. Its taken Blue Origin a very long time to get to this point. I watched a replay of the launch today, and yeah, that thing literally crawled off the pad. But the blue flame was cool.

Blue Origin reaches orbit on first flight of its titanic New Glenn rocket

Bypassing engine chill issues and a wayward boat, Blue Origin got to T-0.

arstechnica.com

We need more science and space exploration. Billionaires have the financial resources to make it happen.

 

[Peter]

Well, at least they should be unlikely to hit an iceberg.

 

[Moon]

Glad to see this, even if it is another asshole billionaire. Its taken Blue Origin a very long time to get to this point. I watched a replay of the launch today, and yeah, that thing literally crawled off the pad. But the blue flame was cool.

Blue Origin reaches orbit on first flight of its titanic New Glenn rocket

Bypassing engine chill issues and a wayward boat, Blue Origin got to T-0.

arstechnica.com

Yeah, it was crawling off the launchpad, but glad to see it made it to the planned orbit. Too bad about the 1st stage, but they’ll figure it out.

 

[Rexedgar]

We won’t find another inhabitable planet before this one gives out. My opinion.

 

[sanman]

Yeah, it was crawling off the launchpad, but glad to see it made it to the planned orbit. Too bad about the 1st stage, but they’ll figure it out.

It's possible they may upgrade to 9 engines, like Falcon-9, to make it ascend faster. Otherwise you're suffering gravity losses by going too slow.

 

[sanman]

 

[Lovebug]

One side's billionaires are working to advance space travel, even engaging in a billionaire-vs-billionaire competition to see who can get us back to the moon first.

The other side's billionaires are working equally hard to get Marxist DAs elected and tear apart the fabric of society.

What are you saying?