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Blue Origin rocket makes historic vertical landing
Watch as the Blue Origin rocket makes the first vertical landing. (www.youtube.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Waow ! It looks like in the cartoon of Hergé in the 50's. ;-)
So the empty rocket body makes a nice smooth, controlled landing expending tremendous amounts of energy in the process. While the capsule with the human passengers makes an uncontrolled decent via parachute with a large jolt at the landing. Something seems backwards with the application of the technology here. Either way, congratulations to a job well done!
On a manned flight, the capsule launch abort system rockets will fire to soften the landing.
Exactly like Soyuz.
Not quite. Soyuz has dedicated launch abort rockets, mounted above the capsule, which are jettisoned after a successful launch, and separate landing rockets. Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule (and Space-X's Crew Dragon) have their launch abort systems mounted below the capsule, which allows them to combine these functions to save weight and improve re-usability.
Sorry, I should have expanded (Fallout 4 induced sleep deprivation) - I meant to say both have soft-landing retros that fire immediately before touch-down. Sure beats the "watch that planet!! What planet? SPLAT!!" method of landing ;)
Don't see anything wrong with the approach. Taking operational costs into effect, having a reusable launch unit makes a huge difference in having a business case that supports their model. Also, most likely less risk at this point in time in having the customers parachute back. Controlled landings, as NASA knows, is in its infancy with several spectacular failures.
Cheers , , ,
Cheers , , ,