At this year’s AirVenture
festivities in Oshkosh, starry-eyed dreamers, wannabe astronauts and general
aviation enthusiasts were given the opportunity to get up close and
personal with Blue Origin’s actual New Shepard reusable rocket, as well as its
one-of-a-kind crew capsule that boasts large windows that will eventually give
commercial space passengers an incredible view of the stars. The luckier among
us even got to “ride” in the capsule on a simulated launch and landing;
however, that voyage excluded the presumably breathtaking view.
This week, Blue Origin
took another step toward fulfilling owner Jeff Bezos’ quest for commercial
space travel, as New Shepard flew for the seventh time and completed its sixth
consecutive successful test flight. Bezos called the flight a “great
ride,” as Mission 7 included the rocket’s next-generation booster and 12
commercial, research and education payloads. It also marked the debut of Crew Capsule
2.0, which has windows 2.4-feet wide by 3.6-feet tall. According to Blue
Origin, the capsule reached an apogee of 322,405 feet AGL/326,075 feet MSL,
while the booster reached an apogee of 322,032 feet AGL/325,702 feet MSL.
Earlier this month, Blue Origin announced a partnership with
the Xerox company PARC “to enhance awareness and interest in the vast
possibilities made possible by conducting R&D in space.” The goal of the
partnership is cooperation in “Accelerating Research in Space” by conducting an
advanced technology R&D experiment on a future Blue Origin flight.
“This is an exciting partnership at an exciting
time,” said Austin Pugh, Senior Director of Global Business Development at
PARC. “We look forward to working with Blue Origin’s world class team of scientists
and engineers on gaining new insights from performing R&D in space. When a
truly multi-disciplinary team of scientists come together to think about how to
tackle big challenges, the possibilities are endless.”
(Evangle Luo of TTFLY shared with you)
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