Something was missing from Blue Origin Suborbital Spaceflight...
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Something was missing from Blue Origin Suborbital Spaceflight...
For some reason on the return, the chutes were NOT able to be seen as BO zoomed in on the return capsule.
I am not sure why this was the case.
Do you have interest in these #blueorigin launches? Let me know in the comments.
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Going on a carnival ride doesn't make one an astronaut.
Wait what?
@@supernova4760 New Shepard launches are basically go up, hover in zero-g for a few seconds, drop back down. "Carnival ride" is accurate, and listening in on the asshats going up cements that this is a joyride, not real space exploration.
Tough one because I definitely wouldn’t take away the accomplishments of X-15 pilots who earned astronaut wings, nor Alan Shepherd who flew suborbital Mercury mission.
In the future we may even look back at LEO and scoff at everyone we today call an astronaut. I’d have no issue with calling all of them from today spaceflight participants. As for the past maybe we need to break out suborbital from orbital.
Just sitting in a cabin and going up then down without ever reaching orbit is a test monkey not an astronaut.
Another joke company
@@DanTheisen Exactly why I prefer Virgin Galactic, it's piloted by humans and in general a way more "orbital" experience.. all in all you fly up, enjoy a longer trip to space, sitting up while rocketing through the edge of space, then enjoy micro gravity and then glide down to the landing strip. Yeah, and it doesn't look like a effing dildo. ☺
100% agree on referring to them as astronauts. It’s like if I drove an F1 car 10 feet, then being reffered to as an F1 driver. High altitude tourist might be more fitting. My two cents.
I like that title instead. I feel it is an insult to actual NASA astronauts, or even SpaceX astronauts. If you ain't in orbit, you ain't an astronaut, IMO
10 minutes does not make Astronauts . Just nauts.
I agree - but you do need to have the word "space" in any description of the passengers, because the Karman line is GENERALLY accepted as the dividing line, but to describe them as "astronauts" goes too far.
@@irri4662 🤣🤣🤣"Astronaughts!"🤣🤣🤣
@@irri4662Alan Shepherd's flight lasted 15 minutes and he was considered an Astronaut
I agree with you Ellie. NONE of these "powered bungee jumpers" are astronauts! STOP calling them that. It is a disrespect to real astronauts.
Alan Shepard's suborbital flight achieved 116 miles altitude whereas this flight achieved 62 miles barely making it into space.
The 116 mile flight also went some distance. Not straight up and down the same line; on a virtual rail, like some joy park device.
I hate these joyrides. I also can't stand when they call them astronauts. It does a BIG disservice to all the astronauts that trained hard and some gave their lives (Grissom, Chaffee and White as well as Challenger and Columbia astronauts).
Not to mention the 4 Soviet casualties. Vladimir Kamirov(sic) and Soyuz 11 went horribly.
Meh. It's called progress. Eventually we'll all be doing it.
They are not astronauts. They are passengers (cargo).
And they're almost spoofing Alan Shepherd & Gus Grissom's Mercury flights!
The Blue Origin Pogo Jump is more like a carnival ride than a true Astronaut experience
I tend to call it the Pogo 'Five letter word for the body part it most resembles'.
Above the Karman line is above the Karman line. It's space... If Alan Sheppard is an astronaut (his first flight was also sub-orbital), so are they.
And how exactly would you know? You ain't no Astronaut xD
@@myyklmax I rode jump seat on two flights of the Concorde. That doesn’t make me a supersonic flight pilot
@@chuck7299 I’ve flown supersonic, that doesn’t make me a Chuck Yager
An 8 minute "Spam in a can" joyride does not make you an astronaut. It cheapens what those who have dedicated and sacrificed years of study, discipline, training and risk to become real astronauts have gone through.
Indeed. These people paid to be on that ride. Real astronauts GET paid to do this stuff.....
To be honest, I have no interest in how a billionaire takes some of his buddies and the allocated commoner on an adult roller coaster ride. I think 'Team Space" is a dangerous mindset to have in this industry; there should be no 'participation trophies" in the space industry.
Disaster awaits. It’s a matter of time.
The first few participation trophies kinda matter in that they pave the way for space travel becoming common-place. The first person to have bought a car and then commuted to work is kind of a big deal. kind of.
Basically, a high priced carnival ride.
Negative. I have been following space exploration since 1962 when I was 5. I have seen Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, SpaceX. The BO Sub-orbital is boring
Glad you speak the truth
Same here, and actually the same age as you.
We are of an age. I consider this the Bezos marketing tool. Still. If you can take influential people up and point them in a good direction - I can be on board with that. I do get tired of the girlie rah rah announcers. Like no one has ever done THIS before. (A 5 minute flora experiment.)
@@ellieinspace>>> FWIW: I consider the winged / gliding suborbital vehicles {i.e., Virgin} to be _more interesting_ than just a capsule with parachutes.
@@Allan_aka_RocKITEmanYeah Virgin is a kewl site to see. :)
"Welcome back, astronauts!" ... they were coming back, regardless, unlike the Starliner crew.
True that.
astronauts ?? lol no not only going to low orbit
That's a low bar. Granted, a bar that Boeing figured out how to bury below sea level, but still.
@@Capt_Wupass Even the ISS is in low eartth orbit. Blue Origin never reaches "orbit" because it never "Orbits". It just falls straight back down, like throwing a rock up in the air. lol
They had no choice but to come back as they never reached orbital velocity!
They are not astronauts
Today’s NASA ‘astronauts’ are spam-in-the-can joyriders is 100% automated craft where monkeys could do as well far more cheaply…
NASA ‘right-stuff’ mythology is BS.
Amen there. A astronaut is a person who studies and works hard to train, and spends time working in space. A tourist is not one
@@jamesf333Astronauts study/train/work for what? Monkeys could do just as well.
These are 100% automated vehicles operated at launch/reentry flight tolerances far beyond human capabilities, with multiple hardware/software backups.
Don’t swallow NASA self-serving astronaut ‘right-stuff’ hype.
Why did NASA recklessly force/risk 2 human lives on this problematic/unproven Starliner ISS resupply flight?
They had zero value for space science, exploration…
they were just human cannonballs trying to keep NASA astronaut corps fund flowing.
PS: If the ISS has or ever had value, why is NASA eager to dump it in the ocean…why not boost it to a higher orbit where it’s stable for a hundred years?
Silverspoon tourists. They *can* dig somewhat deeper into their pockets, to be fooled.
I call them riders.
If you wouldn't cover people on bungee jumps, then you shouldn't cover these BO launches either because that's all it is...a glorified bungee jump. Still shocking to me that after two decades worth of work, this is all that Blue Origin can say they've accomplished. And they still have yet to reach orbit!
Well said.
This is a bit of leap. Pun intended. They do make rocket engines, BE4s have been to space. New Glenn launches in a month or 2. They are worth covering.
Absolutely correct. Bezos has sucked the dollars from Government huge. And this is all they have produced.
If you make a surprised face and show some cleavage people will click to watch bungee jumps too.
Very ignorant comment.Its clear you are biased.Comparing a rocket launch to Bungie jumping? Lol. Take a chill pill. B O success is good for America. China is hot on our asses and we need all the help we can get
A New Shepard suborbital flight bares little comparison to an orbital mission like Polaris Dawn, but I think they're a plus overall for Blue Origin who are learning about how to handle crew and how to perform propulsive landings.
Blue may be frustratingly slow in their development and reluctant in their transparency, but Jeff Bezos has significant funds to put into the company so I'm hopeful they'll make a positive contribution to commercial spaceflight eventually
@@MiaTaylor-no1fHow did you come up with these wise words?
Yes -- 100% agree. We need Blue Origin to succeed so that we have competition and redundancy in terms of commercial access to space and bringing the costs down. SpaceX may be far ahead, but Blue Origin's New Glenn launcher is a good design with a lot of promise, and with Jeff Bezos' renewed focus on I'm hopeful that we will see accelerated progress from Blue Origin.
Indeed. "Gradatim Ferociter."
Bezos is not going to challenge the prices. And Elon would be dead, if he had done any cheaper. Now guesse who'd be first to buy the trigger....
Nope We need the Best and the Next best to Succeed, if that’s BO then ok but I’m not about to bet the bank on them… too slow and too many excuses, much like Boeing … plus not very economically minded …
For all you haters out there: I'm a doctor now, because I gave my wife some painkillers for her headache. This is how it works, right? Right? 😕😕
Yes, by the definition of BO, you are now a doctor. 😂
You used nanoscopic instruments to alter the brains of your wife. You are a full-blown brain-surgeon!
You can tell a lot about a company by how public they are about there mistakes. SpaceX livestreams everything and doesn't try to hide their failures but publishes there mistakes for everyone to see.
That's the difference between Trustworthy and Shady
Elon: Space is easy, orbit is hard.
In my opinion you have to make at least 1 orbit in the vacuum of space around our planet to be called an Astronaut.
@@astrogerard I agree but it also needs more in my opinion. To earn an astronaut badge, one would need to train for and complete some sort of important part of the mission. Not just be a screaming space tourist.
@DaveAdams308 so, if these people do science experiments on their flight. They're astronauts.
Let’s not forget the Mercury/Redstone suborbital flights of Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom. These men were astronauts and not screaming, super bungee jumping tourists.
Astronauts are people who go up into space to perform important tasks that require technical training and skill. Filming a few scenes for a movie or joyriding just don’t fit the bill. By all means, give them their “space wings,” but tourists absolutely should not ever be called “astronauts.” It’s disrespectful to everyone who has put in the hard work and training to willingly fill this role despite the risks they face.
fun fact: that rules out Yuri Gagarin!
1) Tourists are not "astronauts"
2) Passengers are not "crew"
3) A sightseeing tour is not a "mission"
I'm a big fan of space tourism and I'm 100% in favor of private/commercial spaceflight, but I will keep saying this as long as Blue Origin (and Virgin Galactic) keeps trumpeting them as "astronauts". Pretending that passengers engaging in an expensive, 10-minute, costumed role-play are the same as actual astronauts is not merely distasteful, it's Stolen Valor.
100% agree. Nothing bad is in a tourism, but calling them astronauts who are doing significant "researches".... it is not ok.
I liked the part where they were screaming in terror. 😂
It's a very expensive roller coaster. Whoever that was got their money's worth.
It sounded like multiple people wereexperiencing holy terror.
The whole thing with these joy riders saying they have been to space or are astronauts is like driving through the campus at Yale University then telling everyone you went to Yale.
It's like telling people that you have been to a certain city just because you changed flights at their airport.
I wouldn't mind watching this kind of flight, because it shows how far behind they are behind the real things.
6 weeks to New Glenn launch. That’s when Blue Origin really proves it’s a major player.
@@mylesgray3470
If it goes well. And they can repeat it a few times. And they at least trend toward profitability.
And even then, if Starship goes into service, SpaceX is going to jump far ahead again.
I hope they can get their shit together, because I want to see the O'Neill cylinder Jeff Bezos is planning. At the rate they are going now it won't happen this century.
Totally right, these people are astronauts like passengers are airline pilots because they were in the plane.
I'm pretty much only paying attention to Starship, or Falcon Heavy launches.
Good niche
I still occasionally tune in to Starlink missions if I'm actually awake at the odd hours that they send them up, but yeah, Falcon Heavy and Starship are where it's actually interesting, and none of the other launch providers (except Rocket Lab) do live coverage as good as SpaceX does. When they switch from surface camera shots to 3d renders, I just shut it off, cuz it's all fake.
Glad you covered it but blue origin offers nothing except lawsuits
As to the latest NASA/Boeing "screw the pooch" debacle, it looks like Elon and SpaceX are going to have to ride in to the rescue.
Maybe Elon should add the condition that each SpaceX mission to the space station should include at least 2 members from the SpaceX development group and/or the Mars mission development group.
That will give at least some of those 2 teams some experience and insight into how things really are in an off world situation which is needed because it is NOT EASY for someone to conceive, design and develop strategies and equipment for environments and situations that they have never experienced themself.
Lets face facts, since Apollo and the space shuttle, NASA and the rest of the gang have pretty much been resting on their laurels and doing pretty much nothing else.
It's Ridiculous They Call Them Astronauts Personally It's Insulting Because Astronauts Train For Years, And These Just Go Up And Straight Back Down They Not Astronauts In My Own Personal View.
In my opinion, yes, they do go to space (above the Karmann line), but they are NOT astronauts, they are passengers on a really expensive theme park ride.
They need to correct the Karmann line and raise it to 400 miles
I'll be honest, Blue Origin's secrecy has been kind of suspicious. Especially in relation to SpaceX.
I don't blame you for not going. Its news for a slow news day but I wouldn't go out of my way to cover it.
It would have been a 16 hour round trip and they wouldnt even let me go live
Slow news day????
@@ellieinspaceyou have turned into a blue origin hater. Too much negativity coming from you
By this definition of Astronaut I am an aquanaut, race car driver, helicopter pilot, mountain climber and a few other things I've done at least once. Two minutes in space does not make one an astronaut. New Shepard was only interesting as it was a stepping stone to New Glenn. When will the first New Glenn astronauts fly?
Crew rating for New Glenn is expected to take 6 launches. So, at current speeds of production, 20 years? 😅
New Glenn needs to prove itself in its first flight first. Mid October!
@@mylesgray3470 people who hide everything usually have something to hide. I’ll believe New Glenn when it flys.
Yes, NASA speeds.
First of all, I'm interested in ALL space/rocket related coverage. However, as you said, astronauts and the civilian astronauts like SpaceX sends up undergo a lot of training. With the understanding that the actual Astronauts go thru an even more intense training... some even years. These are astronauts but, going on what equals to a carnival ride should not hold the same distinction. Love the content.. keep it up.
I would rather watch a falcon land then waste my time watching a craft barely get to space and costing so much money for 10 minutes of non flight.
*than
Man, at 4:50 it sounds like some kind of Alien attack from a Ridley Scott movie. Face huggers for everyone.
It definitely does sound like that’s what is happening in there. 😂
I'm happy for these first adopters who are paying the premium price now so that it will get cheaper in the future for others.
A New Shepard suborbital flight bares little comparison to an orbital mission like Polaris Dawn, but I think they're a plus overall for Blue Origin who are learning about how to handle crew and how to perform propulsive landings.
Blue may be frustratingly slow in their development and reluctant in their transparency, but Jeff Bezos has significant funds to put into the company so I'm hopeful they'll make a positive contribution to commercial spaceflight eventually.
You make good points! Hopefully New Glenn comes online soon
good answer! good answer! really a good opinion. :)
Astronauts have responsibilities during flight. Their only responsibility is to not puke. Not astronauts.
I am not particularly interested in the New Shepherd. It seems more like a stunt than anything significant.
I agree. BO is like Mollar Interntional with their flying car!...What flying car?....Exactly!
Personally I think it’s cool that this rocket exists though. Basically anyone can take this trip if they have the funds to do so. Feels like we live in the future. New Glenn launch will be exciting. Hopefully not ass exciting as the first Starship launch was because this one will have a payload! 🔥
Official definition: An astronaut is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft.
So you don't even have to go to space to be called an astronaut, on one hand and on the other hand you can go a 1000 times to space and still you aren't an astronaut (hop, orbital, space station, moon, mars, whatever).
NASA, ESA etc. have astronauts that never went to space present and past.
This program is a Joke! They are not astronauts. They are Passengers!
They’re definitely not astronauts, and calling them that is disrespectful to astronauts everywhere, past, present, and future. By all means, give them their “space wings,” just don’t call them astronaut wings.
That said, the more people go to space, the better. It will create interest and development in the industry. Companies seeing that there is money to be made will invest more often and more heavily, which will help accelerate growth and bring down costs, and we desperately need that to happen for too many reasons.
Cool but its an expensive amusement park ride imo
The most expensive ever!!!
If you are paying for a ride, you are not an astronaut.
Well done and excellent commentary. Thank you! Lots of love to all.❤❤❤
Where was the retro thrust on the capsule before landing? Did I miss seeing it??
The retro thrust fires just before impact, it only lasts a fraction of a second. It's so quick the only evidence it happened is the large cloud of dust you see on impact.
im so glad you mentioned the hotmics right after booster touchdown, those comms scared the hell out of me and i've seen virtually no one talk about it!
Blue origin is more of a novelty with no real purpose and contributes nothing but a thrill ride for people with money to burn. With that said, I have respect for what they do, and I hope that blue origin continues to be successful.
New Glenn launch in October, and will send a payload to Mars on that first flight if successful. A very bold! That launch will be interesting!
@@mylesgray3470 I'm looking forward to seeing it
I enjoy your channel. I love everything Space/Rocketry related. I think it's worth covering these short, rather banal, Blue Origin Flights, even in a short video. Still entertaining and worth a watch.
very good carnival ride not a extended trip at least its an attempt at space watching
This is kind of like my kids wind up toys, watching him pull it back, then zoom across the living room floor... I was reminded of MXC the way the girl come out and stated "i went to space" If you don't know what MXC is, youtube is your friend, and I spent a lot of hours watching that show as a teenager.
As far as I'm concerned people going to sub-orbital flight should not be called astronauts. The rules for getting the astronaut badge should be reviewed.
The FAA rules for who qualifies for commercial astronaut wings require you to be trained and qualified as flight crew, fly above the Karmen line, *and* have actual crew duties.
Now, Blue Origin is free to give out whatever mementos they want to their passengers, but they aren't really "astronaut wings" any more than the plastic Delta or United wings I got when I flew commercial as a kid are really "pilot wings".
Yes. I'm interested in this. The more folks go to space the better. Space travel FTW.
Good question. I don't really care about these kind of missions. More interesting would be New Glenn, but it troubles me that Blue Origin is dragging their timeline out for New Glenn.
Didn't you hear about the Explosion of their Rocket during a test??? It seems not many know about it???? Someone is suppressing it?
I pay attention to BO launches, but I pay more attention to orbital launches.
When the Concorde was flying, I had no interest in seeing who paid for the tickets, this is the same thing. This is an exclusive amusement park and nothing more.
Thanks for posting this. It's good to have reporting on these missions... even if they aren't orbital. Other missions might be more important or draw more attention, but all these missions help space innovation, awareness, and move us forward toward exploring more of the universe. Keep it up!
I think this is fantastic. A small step on the path of opening space flight to the masses. A very small step but a step. This is not something that happens without lots of small steps so we should be happy about it!
You nailed it. Its a good side story. Thks for covering it.🖖
Yeah, they're not astronauts. They didn't really go to space. It's a load of bolloks really. I've been in rally cars, wouldn't dream of calling myself a rally car driver.
Good analogy
I like hearing about whatever is in the space news genre and this FOR SURE fits the bill. Keep covering all things space!
Compared to Polaris Dawn, this is more like putting a quarter in a mechanical pony at the mall.
I'm very interested in space tourism, and this looks like the beginning of that industry. So brief updates like this are great but Polaris Dawn is much more interesting!
Cheers from Alaska
I would continue to cover these 10:00 min flights, it's part of the Space narrative and someday they may make it to 20 minutes per flight and further. Thanks for the content Ellie!
Alright- will do
The Karman Line, at 100 km altitude, is the internationally recognised lower limit of space. All of the passengers on Blue Origin's New Shepard have completed a suborbital spaceflight. Just like Alan Shepard did back in 1961. There's no quibbling about that. (The Virgin Galactic pilots and passengers don't meet the criteria, since they barely get to 90 km -- close, but not space by international standards.)
But I do think calling them "astronauts" is a bit much -- it's like calling all of the passengers flown by airlines "pilots". Astronauts (and cosmonauts, and taikonauts) are professionals in their field. An alternative term needs to be used, such as "space passengers" (like airline passengers). But, we also need to acknowledge that these space passengers do go through training before their flight -- unlike airline passengers! They not only make a substantial financial commitment to their flight but a significant commitment of time.
And then there's also the researchers who are beginning to take advantage of these flights -- they are not mere thrill-seeking passengers.
I had heard that "Oh $HT, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" And I got concerned too. Glad they all made it back!
Probably when they unbuckled and started FLOATING.....LOL
@@1flash3571 nah they were on their way back
@Slynell1 yeah, I think that probably happened when the parachutes deployed if I had to guess.
Maybe they got invaded and replaced by alien bodysnatchers in that moment
@@SomeoneExchangeableYep, it sounded like that’s what was happening because she sounded terrified. All in good fun.
I would refer to these folks as "having been in space". Joining the mile high club does not qualify you to be classified as an Airline Pilot. Terms like Astronaut, Engineer, Doctor, CPA, etc denote that an individual has received a certification , and is now qualified to perform a specific function in support of a specific goal. They are not just attendees, or passerby, they are involved. If you go to the Daytona International Speedway and buy a ticket for a couple laps around the track, I "have visited Daytona Beach, Florida and have driven on the actual Daytona Speedway track". I did not become a NASCAR Tace Car Driver.
you're absolutely right, they are not astronauts, maybe an amateur astronaut would be more accurate, just like i am an amateur astronomer. I think it's a cool ride.
A sub-orbital flight hasn't really counted as "going to space" since the early Mercury program. These passengers are still at the "spam in a can" level.
Think MR-2. They are all 'Hams'.
2:53 "I don't think anything that lasts 10 minutes is worth $28 million."
There's a joke in there somewhere.
Yeah, it involves a billionaire and Margot Robbie...
I know, I was trying to find it.
It takes guts to go up.
However I definitely don't think the term astronaut should be used for space tourists. Its an insult to highly trained real Astronauts. From the US and other countries. New Shepherd atleast goes higher than virgin galactic, but the experience from both those companies is barely long enough to even call them space tourists. 😅
Too much money for a very short ride/experience.
Astronauts? more like astro NOTs
haha, astronots. LOL
Supply vs demand is always going to dictate price.
or
A fool and their money are always easily parted. Take your pick.
World's most expensive amusement park ride.
By all means, give them their “space wings,” space is space whether you’re in orbit or not. But Astronaut is a title that should only be given to people who have gone up there to do actual work, not just filming some scenes for a movie, and definitely not joyriding. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the tourism. The more people go to space, for any reason, the more economical it will become and the more public interest will be generated, leading to greater development of technology and infrastructure. But movie stars and tourists aren’t doing vital research, maintaining spacecraft, and furthering our knowledge and ability to extend our reach into the cosmos. That is what astronauts do, and giving that title to a tourist belittles them and all their hard work and training.
The Vomit Comet impresses me more.
I love the fact they went to space, but for me, I'd love to do a few orbits before coming home.
This is like walking 10 ft out to the median of the interstate, then back, and say you made a cross country automobile trip.
Calling them astronauts is a slap in the face to every man and woman who trained and sacrificed for years for the honor to be an astronaut.
Yeah, I agree with those who don't see the value in covering these little excursions. It's actually kind of sick that people throw away so much money on such inconsequential undertakings. I'm sure it does look pretty impressive for a few minutes, but for such a momentary gratification? It's actually absurd.
Good question and one we need to discuss more. Surely an 'astronaut' is someone who achieves orbital flight - ballistic flights are just that, although that would exclude the Mercury/Redstone flights (although they did go on to orbital/Moon flights) and the X-15 flights. Maybe another metric would be for someone who is paid to- do that job with all the necessary requirements involved. 'Astronaut' is a job not a service you pay for. Perhaps that's the definition.
People with money, taking something and turning into another "influencer" type opportunity. Like when they are now turning "underconsumption" into a trend, when most of us call it living poor. It takes away from the honest, everyday work that many are doing to get astronauts (who must have degrees, get picked, training for years and constant learning) and turning it into a spectacle. Let alone all the science and education that is learned. Just call it tourism. Signed- someone who works with astronauts and works hard to make it happen.
I only watched this video because I was hoping you would say:
-they’re no real astronauts
-they’re not really going into space
-there’s no way to justify the cost
I wasn’t disappointed. Thank you 🙏
There used to be (and may still be) companies that will give you a zero-G ride in a specially designed airliner. You get multiple Zero-G experiences about 30 seconds each when the airliner flies a parabolic arc. And a few years ago it cost $5000. Even if I could afford $500K for Blue Origin I wouldn't spend it. Now 3 days in orbit on SpaceX (hopefully with a working lavatory) would be worth it.
I'm probably in the minority, but I'm more interested in the Virgin Galactic flights than Blue Origin. At least they're doing something different.
I always watch their launches live, it’s a great thing to open spaceflight to more people. But I generally don’t care who’s on those flights, except for Ed Dwight and William Shatner.
Good call on turning them down Ellie. Since they were so protective of their image it has to tell you something. Love your integrity.
It also would have been a 16 hour round trip of driving
Reminds me of the first consumer airplane flights.The passengers were very wealthy and only a few could afford to experience it.
Great coverage. I agree. It's not worth the price or danger for a 10 minute ride. I remember when my mother bought my father's mother a pink suitcase, when my grandmother's set was red. She flipped her Irish red wig! Pink & red don't match..
3:49 I love what Garrett Reisman (a real astronaut, not a passenger on a rocket for 10 minutes) had to say about seeing the Earth from the space station for the first time:
"When I was ready I floated up to that window and I opened up my eyes and I gazed out for the first time at the Earth from space and what that felt like is really hard to describe in words but if I had to pick one word to describe what I was feeling at that moment it would be really just, "Meh..." I mean, it was pretty. It had a lot of those Earth colors like blues and greens right but I mean we've all seen pictures of the Earth from space...".
Welcome back Blue Originauts! Jeff likes to stand out; this ought to fluff his ego nicely!
Seriously, to be classified an "astronaut", I believe three (3) orbits, at a minimum of 22 miles, would be justified to be called an astronaut.
Why three orbits? You actually have at least one circular orbit out of the three, and not just a ballistic orbital path. Thus you were truly in a stable orbit for at least one revolution. You could have stayed in that orbital path with little to no additional energy (thrusters/engines). You actually need to do a "burn" (energy) to get out of it and slow down.
Astronaut! 😺
I was surprised at that audio too...it made them sound like reavers from the movie Serenity. Spooky!!
Spending 10 minutes in a small tin can filled with screaming, yelling people would be my idea of hell... maybe that's why everyone celebrates when they get out at the end of the flight! These tourists are not astronauts, but they have done something that most of us won't get to do! The flights are interesting as part of the development of Blue Origin, and it remains to be seen if Blue really does achieve all or some of what has been promised!
Doing a passive joyride doesn't make you an astronaut, just as being an airline trip passenger doesn't make you a pilot.
Agreed! I find calling these paid passengers “astronauts” offensive. I worked on the Apollo space program and I find this to be more of a gimmick than a serious explanation of space.
BTW, did anyone it else notice that there was a little bit of profanity slipping through the audio on the decent?
I never watch anything from Blue Origin. Just a carnival ride. They are so far behind SpaceX. I watch every single SpaceX launch.
Good on you for not accepting restrictions and lack of control they insist on for you to participate.
Thumbs up! This allows me to appreciate Space-X so much more, thanks
No they are not astronauts. And as for me I find Polaris and other space orbiting flights more interesting.
*So, one of the requirements when you got back from your high-altitude bungee jump with the Blue Origin rocket was that you had to act like a crazy lunatic out the door?*
Astronauts go through an extensive period of vigorous training, and besides are generally chosen for their level of expertise in multiple fields. Being wealthy enough to take a high-altitude ride is all very well, but calling them astronauts is an unearned title.
*Heck, I've gone higher jumping on my backyard trampoline!!*
7:15
Ive been obsessed with spaceflight for the past 15 years, and simultaneously i could not care less about these suborbital tourist hops. Calling them astronauts is a farce.
I think Blue Origin is up and coming, we need multiple private space operators for various purposes. Im all good, excited about the launch. I would like to see more progress with Blue Origin, however I'm confident they will meet their portion of NASA's contract to return to the moon