Blue Origin Photo Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin successfully carried out controlled landing of an expended rocket back to earth on Novembe...
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| Blue Origin Photo |
Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin successfully carried out controlled landing of an expended rocket back to earth on November 23, marking a milestone in the more than 100 years of expendable rocket launch history.
The rocket booster which comprise the Blue Origin's New Shepard vertical take off and landing (VTOL) space vehicle along with a crew capsule on top, initially took the crew space capsule to its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet (100.5 kilometers) before executing a historic landing back at the launch site in West Texas.
The booster descended under controlled flight to the landing pad. Just prior to landing, the booster re-ignited its BE-3 engine which slows the vehicle to 4.4 mph for a gentle, powered vertical landing.
Major sequence in the landing included the ring fin which shifted the center of pressure aft to help control reentry and descent; eight large drag brakes deployed and reduced the vehicle’s terminal speed to 387 mph; hydraulically actuated fins steered that vehicle through 119-mph high-altitude crosswinds to a location precisely aligned with and 5,000 feet above the landing pad; then the highly-throttleable BE-3 engine re-ignited to slow the booster as the landing gear deployed and the vehicle descended the last 100 feet at 4.4 mph to touchdown on the pad.
Named in honor of the first American in space, Alan Shepard, the fully reusable New Shepard will carry six astronauts to altitudes beyond 100 kilometers, the internationally-recognized boundary of space.
The vehicle is comprised of two elements—a crew capsule in which the astronauts ride and a rocket booster powered by a single American-made BE-3 liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen engine. At liftoff, the BE-3 delivers 110,000 pounds of thrust. During ascent, astronauts experience 3x the force of gravity as the spacecraft accelerates through the atmosphere.
Following powered flight, the crew capsule separates from the booster and coasts into space, providing several minutes of weightlessness. As the crew capsule descends, it reenters the atmosphere with astronauts experiencing about 5g force before deploying three main parachutes for landing.
Deployment of crew capsule drogue parachutes occurred at 20,045 feet above ground level.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has been pioneering the controlled landing of its Falcon 9 rocket's first stage. Tests conducted so far has been only partially successful, although the Falcon 9 is very big compared to the New Shephard.
