By Andy Pasztor
The privately funded space company backed by Amazon.com Inc.
founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos announced a historic coup
with a test flight of a fully reusable rocket, which could usher in
a new era for space transportation.
Blue Origin LLC said it successfully landed a spent rocket back
on Earth after an unmanned flight to the edge of space. The
company's reusable New Shepard vehicle flew a suborbital test
mission to 333,000 feet on Monday reaching nearly four times the
speed of sound, and then both the capsule and its BE-3
liquid-fueled rocket separately landed safely back on earth--ready
for another flight.
Buoyed by the flawless mission, Mr. Bezos for the first time
sketched out an ambitious timetable that envisions starting
commercial suborbital flights carrying paying passengers
potentially in less than two years. "We'll fly humans when we're
ready," he said in a brief interview Tuesday. But if all goes well,
he added, "I'm thinking it could be sometime in 2017."
The company and Mr. Bezos, both renowned for secrecy, in the
past have steadfastly refused to sketch out even a rough timetable
for such service. But since the test flight went so smoothly and
"validated the architecture" of the fully automated New Shepard
system, according to Mr. Bezos, he now feels comfortable projecting
the beginning of routine operations.
Before then, though, Blue Origin will conduct perhaps two dozen
or so additional test missions, including validation flights
demonstrating that the capsule containing passengers can safely
separate from the first stage in case of a rocket malfunction
during ascent. The vehicle is designed to operate completely
autonomously, without any pilots on board.
"You should have seen all the tears of joy" after the booster
touched down Monday before noon Texas time. Mr. Bezos said. "It was
one of the greatest moments of my life."
According to a company release issued some 18 hours after the
test flight, the rocket made a flawless return through stiff winds
and settled back gently at the company's launch facility in West
Texas. The single rocket engine reignited at an altitude of about
5,000 feet during the controlled return, according to the company,
and it landed upright, 4 feet from where it started, traveling at a
speed of 4.4 miles an hour.
The ability to reuse such a large rocket has been a
long-standing goal of the global aerospace industry, and until now
the efforts of Elon Musk's closely held Space Exploration
Technology Corp. have garnered the most attention. In addition to
lowering costs, the aim is to significantly speed up the tempo of
launches.
SpaceX, as Mr. Musk's company is called, has repeatedly tried
but failed to land its Falcon 9 booster on a floating platform
after operational launches. Those attempts came close, but weather
issues and mechanical problems disrupted the returns and ended with
the spent rocket failing to land vertically.
SpaceX, which has worked over the years to improve its guidance,
propulsion and other systems, is expected to try again in coming
months.
But with its first-of-a-kind accomplishment, Blue Origin set a
new benchmark for the burgeoning commercial space industry. The New
Shepard system is intended to carry six passengers on suborbital
flights to the edge of the atmosphere, giving space tourists a
taste of weightlessness with the capsule floating to earth after
deployment of three main parachutes.
The rocket is designed to separate at the high point of its
trajectory, as it sends the capsule and its passengers coasting on
a thrill ride. The BE-3 engine, used to slow the rocket during the
final descent phase, is intended to be reused.
"Full reuse is a game changer, and we can't wait to fuel up and
fly again," Mr. Bezos said in the release.
Blue Origin conceivably could be the first company to get
tourists into space, considering that closely held rivals Xcor
Aerospace Inc. and Virgin Galactic LLC, backed by British
entrepreneur Richard Branson, haven't said when they will be
ready.
In typical rocket launches, parts of the booster either burn up
during re-entry or come back too damaged to be flown again. Many
industry officials and space aficionados consider reusability
essential for space tourism projects to thrive.
The ability to inspect, refurbish and then launch the same
booster--instead of allowing it to plummet back to earth in an
uncontrolled fashion--also offers huge potential advantages for
satellite operators and launch providers alike.
Blue Origin failed in an attempt to land its booster earlier
this year, after a hydraulic system malfunction. As a result, Mr.
Bezos said the system was redesigned and a second, backup system
had been installed to ensure a proper landing.
In the past, Mr. Bezos and Mr. Musk have dueled over reusability
concepts. Blue Origin, based in Kent, Washington, initially
conceived the concept of vertically landing a spent rocket on a
barge, but SpaceX successfully challenged the patent.
The two hard-charging billionaires, both self-described space
geeks enamored with the idea of human missions, also clashed
briefly over taking over launchpads at Florida's Kennedy Space
Center.
As part of his expanding space ambitions, Mr. Bezos in September
announced a roughly $200 million investment to build rockets and
capsules in Florida, and then blast them into orbit from a nearby
Cape Canaveral launchpad that hasn't been used for a decade.
Those missions will use different capsules and a larger version
of the same rocket engine that powers suborbital New Shepard, which
is intended to continue launching from the Van Horn, Texas,
facility.
Mr. Bezos over the years has kept many details of Blue Origin's
plans private, and has stubbornly shunned publicity about nearly
all test flights.
The space startup's orbital missions will use historic Launch
Complex 36, located on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida,
which among other firsts launched the initial American spacecraft
to visit other planets.
Blue Origin also is joining with a Boeing Co. and Lockheed
Martin Corp. joint venture to provide a new, all-domestic rocket
engine to launch national-security and other U.S. government
payloads.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 24, 2015 12:07 ET (17:07 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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