Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches capsule in West Texas in step toward first human flight

[TexasTowelie]

Source: KHOU-11

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company strapped two employees into a fueled rocketship for practice, but pulled them out shortly before sending the capsule to the edge of space Wednesday with only a test dummy.

The crew rehearsal in West Texas brings Blue Origin closer to launching tourists and others into space.

Blue Origin wanted to see how well a crew could get in and out of the capsule. The pretend astronauts also tested seatbelts and radio links before the 10 1/2-minute flight, and went back to the capsule following touchdown to climb aboard for recovery practice.

"While there are no astronauts on board today, that was a critical step toward our march toward first human flight," flight commentator Ariane Cornell said from company headquarters in Kent, Washington. The company is "very close" to flying passengers, she noted.

Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-company-new-shepard-rocket/507-5e26210b-626e-4f66-a8d2-6c2387a2c660

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Video at the link.

[Historic NY]

1. No dummy's were killed in this test.

[RussBLib]

2. NS-14 was flawless

Today's NS-15 seemed perfect too.

I watched a rerun of NS-14 and that rocket got up to 100km awfully quickly. The rocket landed upright and the capsule parachuted safely to the desert floor.

But to have maybe 3 minutes of weightlessness? For how much? How many hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 20 minute ride? Oh yeah, we'll be lining up.

[speak easy]

3. I'll trust the one certified by NASA to take astronauts to the space station

not some offshoot of Amazon.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. We paid for these toys

Consumers and taxpayers. He got the money from somewhere.

[turbinetree]

5. And this is what you can do when you pay nada in taxes..........

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. Can he launch himself? N/t

[LudwigPastorius]

7. "...strapped two employees into a fueled rocketship"

[AllaN01Bear]

8. so, when is nasa going to get its own craft so that we dont have to depend on the russians ?

and not spacex