...Monday now - that could be a busy day!

Launching 0750UTC

...another scrub. Minor sub-system glitch that's going to take longer than their launch window to fix :(

Nice little interview with Jeff before the launch attempt

https://arstechnica.com/uncategorize...-ourselves-up/

That was cool. So, so slow off the pad but reached orbit on first attempt which is impressive. Not sure we'll be seeing stage #1 again though! Those flips and landing burns tricky....


Replay from NSF
https://www.youtube.com/live/9hmOwYOO1G4?si=KuyWsuPJw_bE4KVc

That was great. Right about that thrust:weight ratio though. Seemed to take an age to clear the tower.

No details on what went wrong on the booster descent yet.

Might take a while to resolve - remember SpaceX lost the first Starship booster even having the expertise learnt through over 300 successful Falcon landings.

It took SpaceX a while to get a Falcon 9 to soft land too. Good effort by Blue Origin though. 1st attempt to orbit success. Not to be sniffed at.

General view is that the TWR was around 1.1/1.2 - and that with a light payload. Probably wouldn’t have survived even a single engine failure at lift off.

Not sure if they deliberately had the engines throttled back to reduce loads on the second stage or had a more generic issue. But seeing as their planned payload is only about 45T, they’ll have to work to generate more thrust in future.

Suspect the cost of Glenn-1 a heck of a lot more than the whole booster/Starship stack - on the Everyday Astronaut tour it looks much more like a traditional aerospace construction than SpaceX's efforts and I'm sure it's got a corresponding price tag. Hardware rich development all well and good if the hardware is a) Cheap enough to throw away and b) Can be built rapidly.

Wonder how long until they have something for their next launch....?

Reports of massive redundancies at Blue Origin.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/s...-zo5Mpm0NnT-eg

Blue Origin is laying off 10% of its workforce, CEO Dave Limp tells employees in an all-hands this morning.

"We just came to the painful conclusion that we aren't set up for the kind of success that we really wanted to have," Limp said.

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Katy Perry set for space with all-women crew on the Jeff Bezos space phallus
 

BBC: Katy Perry set for space with all-women crew on Blue Origin rocket / the Jeff Bezo space phallus

"Pop star Katy Perry and five other women are set to blast into space aboard Jeff Bezos' space tourism rocket.The singer will be joined by Bezos's fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King.

The New Shepard rocket is due to lift off from its West Texas launch site and the launch window opens at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST).

The flight will last around 11 minutes and take the crew more than 100km (62 miles) above Earth, crossing the internationally recognised boundary of space and giving the crew a few moments of weightlessness."

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ccc346a8ae.png

A crew of high achievers, that's for sure.

Blue Origin New Shepard 31 website

Well this is all very sexist, woke,broke, leftwing,rightwing, bias....oh my goodness. Where are the correction squads now ? I have written to Jeff & asked if I don my Air Europe Hostess uniform, can I go too ? Oh, and I want to sit right next to Kate !

Crew?
 

Surely they’re not crew, just SLF (aka passengers)?

A342

What is the purpose of this space flight today ? Is it to entice other HWI's to splash the cash and book a slot for the near future ? As they already did the same with JB and Captain Kirk, it can't be for technical reasons to any great extent. It does seem a bit fluffy for my taste, but I'm probably in the minority.

Yep, and that's true of SpaceX craft too. With the amount of money and hubris involved, I'm not going to quibble about titles.

Crew, pax whatever. You have a former NASA rocket scientist and someone who worked on the last NASA shuttle
mission STS-135, so I'd say some of them are more crew than pax. Whatever floats your boat.

The intention is for them to go along for the ride, for 11 minutes.

Well, Perry's objective seems straightforward enough, "Perry also shared some snaps of her own, vowing to put “the ‘ass’ in astronaut” in the coming hours in a post with Ms Sanchez." (The Independent: Katy Perry takes last-minute astronaut lessons before rocket to space)

Wasn't Ms Perry's famous record titled "Firework" :eek:

3 hrs to start of launch window, touch wood :)

Heard the name but don't have a clue what she looks like.

Well, it seems they went up...

...then came back down again (in one piece).

Looked very smooth.

Well, they're not 'crew' or 'pax' anymore. They're 'astronauts' :)

Changed her opinions from 9 years ago?

I know nothing about her; what does she do for a living?

Warble!

A wastrel then.

I think you, and I, are really missing the point!

This is a truly inspirational, ground breaking, earth shattering, multi emotional, soul revealing, character moulding, life changing, profound and cathartic event.

(E & OE!)

Still gunning for that High Court judge job?! :ok:

I bet it was for them! Not sure you would get me up in one of Mr Bezos' phalli, I prefer my aerial craft to have proper wings and be guided by the art of aviation rather than the science of ballistics. Mind you. I did have a ride in a balloon once and that is also deficient in the wings department - Archimedes came up trumps that day.

Really ?

...............I mean. REALLY ??

Has nobody told them what that looks like. Or is it deliberate ?

Either way, it is just awful. Strewth.

It’s a hen party to celebrate her upcoming wedding to Bezos. Who would want anything less when you’re about to impress everyone by marrying one of the richest men in the world?

Next stop, Venice for the wedding.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...or-his-wedding

No union and forget staff toilet breaks, but hey, at least Bezos can buy Venice for his wedding

I went there once this time of year. It starts to get smelly about now.

I watched it and found it inspiring, whatever the motives. :ok:

Booked my wife on the first launch to Mars. I can only afford a one way ticket. :E

Was it my imagination or was that capsule door opened from the inside (and then shut again very quickly) about five minutes before Bezoz 'opened' it with that special tool? In fact, even that looked to be false as when he leant on it, the door opened immediately without him turning the tool. Special effects for the media?

It’s the 100th anniversary of the publication of, “The Great Gatsby.”

You know what they say, “If you got it, flaunt it.”

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....572b4af25c.jpg