54 Replies to “Bezos Launch”

  2. Is that Alexa I hear in the background? Is she the launch operations central command?

  3. I’m sure the July 20 launch date is just a coincidence.

    Neil Armstrong agrees.

    1. No apologies to Gil Scott Heron:

      Neil Armstrong died today
      (with Sambo on the dole)
      He’s done picked up and gone away
      (and Sambo’s on the dole)
      We can’t afford no moonshots now
      (with Sambo on the dole)
      Ten years from now we’ll be broke still
      (with Sambo on the dole)
      The man jus’ upped my taxes
      (’cause Sambo’s on the dole)
      No roads, no parks, no space program
      (but Sambo’s on the dole)
      I wonder why he’s uppin’ me
      (cause Sambo’s on the dole?)
      I paid over 50 grand last year
      (with Sambo on the dole)
      Taxes takin’ my whole damn check,
      Gangstas makin’ me a nervous wreck,
      The price of food is goin’ up,
      An’ as if all that crap wuzn’t enough:
      Neil Armstrong died today
      (with Sambo on the dole)
      He’s done picked up and gone away
      (but Sambo’s on the dole)
      Was all that money I made las’ year
      (for Sambo on the dole?)
      How come there ain’t no money here?
      (Hmm! Sambo’s on the dole)
      Y’know I jus’ ’bout had my fill
      (of Sambo on the dole)
      I think I’ll sen’ the taxman’s bills,
      Airmail special
      (to Sambo on the dole)

    3. Among the selected crew is Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, one of the women who comprised the Mercury 13.

      When the first astronauts were being recruited, JFK insisted that women also be considered. Eventually, 13 were selected and trained, but none of them ever flew because of the requirement that those astronauts be military test pilots.

      Funk finally got her chance to go into space.

      1. “Funk finally got her chance to go into space.”

        The whole trip was T+10:19

        1. Al Shepard’s flight in Freedom 7 lasted about 15 minutes.

      2. And it was Johnson who cancelled the Mercury 13. Somewhere, his soul is screaming “women don’t belong in space!”

      4. I’m happy for Wally Funk. She richly deserved the opportunity.
        Too bad they were riding in what is essentially 1920s-era technology (on top of explosives).

  5. I wonder how many credits he had to purchase to salve his conscience on this stupendously carbon-spewing venture.

    I mean, how dare we middle-class peons drive to work every day in gas-powered cars when billionaires need to launch themselves into space for fun and adventure.

    And none of the left’s trained eco-seals will have the testes to call him out for it, either.

    There, that is as nice as I could manage.

      1. Dr. Evil now officially has the worlds TALLEST pair of elevator shoes! (But he STILL has “short man syndrome”!)
        Now do Soros (and forget to pack the parachutes)! SPIT

    2. Not sure what the whole project used in terms of carbon, but the engine was hydrogen/oxygen. That was steam coming out of its butt, carbon-free.

      1. That may be true, but water vapour is also a greenhouse gas. Equally destructive to the planet, according to the Green prophets. But they don’t bother with it because it can’t be taxed.

        Yet.

      2. How much CO2 was emitted in the process of building the rocket and supporting infrastructure?

        How much CO2 was emitted by the process of making all that hydrogen?

        Like electric cars. it’s more than just the time in travel.

    3. Some one actually said (read from a cue card) that the rocket was … fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen … and that the exhaust was water vapor. Implying that the Bezos rocket was … “clean and green” I don’t know about you, but that just sounded WRONG to me.

      https://bbc-edition.com/space/2021/07/19/rockets-emit-100-times-more-co%E2%82%82-per-passenger-than-flights-imagine-a-whole-industry/

      However in our brave new world of virtue signaling soundbytes … the average schlub heard only “water vapor” … and thought how proud they were of Jeff Bezos

      1. Isn’t water vapour a (evil) greenhouse gas, and a major contributor to globull warming, err…climate change? Like carbon dioxide? More mental gymnastics.

      2. “fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen”

        How does that work? Nitrogen doesn’t burn. I think they mean hydrogen.

        1. Does anyone here know how much energy is expended to liquidize oxygen (“a lot” is about as precise as I can get)?

          How many battery-powered EVs does it take to schlep tons of steel, aluminum, and titanium out into the west Texas desert? (Answer: Zero. It takes cargo airplanes and diesel-powered big-rig trucks.)

      3. I think these rocket entrepreneurs (Bezos, Branson, and Musk) deserve a hand for their accomplishments no matter how you feel about their personalities.

        Nitrogen will “burn”, meaning it will combine with oxygen in internal combustion engines, for example. Limiting NOx emissions was one of the smog limiting, but power killing processes that made 70s and 80s cars such awful beasts. Modern emissions methods are doing a great job putting the power back into the foot feed and improving fuel economy.

        Water is hydrogen and oxygen so I suspect that is the fuel combination.

        No one is mentioning that most hydrogen is refined from C1H3 otherwise known as methane leaving the refiner with carbon to deal with.

        All of these processes from producing fuel and oxidizers to building and transporting raw materials and finished products require energy, etc. so literally everything we produce and consume involves carbon emissions and waste products somewhere along the line. Solar and wind enthusiasts are conveniently ignorant, ignore this fact, or just lie about it.

        TANSTAAFL = There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

    4. “stupendously carbon-spewing venture.”

      Rocket propellant likely involves no carbon. The project itself would involves use of much carbon.

    1. Yes, that’s much more aligned with my 1950’s sci-fi view of rocketry. However … I’d like to see the economics of saving that booster, including what is involved in reclaiming it for future flights … and how I’d feel if I were to blast off on a booster rocket on its 35th trip … or the last one of its “life cycle”

  7. Bezos is a big, fat worm. That’s as nice as I can do.
    However, that’s how you go to space. With a big rocket strapped to your ass.

  8. Good show!

    I’m glad to see all went well. The conundrum is this indicates the Clintons still consider Bezos an asset.

    1. And when it it gets as cheap as an afternoon at 6-Flags … it will turn into joyrides for Mexican Gangbangers … much as was my last experience at 6-Flags Magic Mountain in LA. Nothing but Mexican gangs fighting each other in the Park … even the beaner-chicks with tattoos all up and down their mostly exposed breasts. Yes, they were actually stabbing each other with their rat tail combs … right in the same serpentine queue my kids and I were lined up in. I had to cut my kids day short.

      PS … not all heespanick women are “beaner-chicks” … just the slut girlfriends of gang members with teardrop tattoos

  11. Jeff Bezos?
    Last week on Pigs in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE viewers saw Captain Link Hogthrob of Virgin Galactic.

    1. And ALL the Western world’s leftist leaders are invited to the Billionaires island(s) for fun in the sun! I hear your PM is a frequent flyer to these “retreats” … Epstein-aged “maids” by request only

  12. Say what you want about Branson and Bezos, those guys strapped on a rocket and flew it into space. That’s the kind of putting your personal ass on the line that we could use a lot more of today. And they didn’t fly people that had countless hours of specialized training and perfect health. They went with Branson who’s an old man, and an 82 year old lady. And they lived. That’s freakin’ impressive.

    I hope Musk one-ups them all and makes it into orbit. That would be a gutsy achievement. Those guys launched a car, they should be able to launch a billionaire.

    If in the future we hope to have mining on the moon and the asteroids for metals and hydrocarbons, this seemingly pointless “joyriding” is what’s going to get us there. I keep hearing people dissing these flights, saying “it’s not even low Earth orbit, it’s pointless.” Yeah, sure. The hardest part of space flight is the first 65 miles. You whip that, and you can have a tether satellite pick you up and sky-hook you to LEO. Or a tugboat. There are plenty of ways to do that.

    These guys made the first 65 miles so cheap they can fly it like the bungee ride at the fair. Reusable space craft that can land, gas up and fly again. It’s amazing, and important.

    And notice that the government is not the one who managed it. Branson, Musk, Bezos, they earned the money to do it. They didn’t tax it out of a captive population.

    Do I like these three zillionairs? No, not really. But is this little space race the best thing that’s happened to the Western World since Trump got elected in 2016? Yes, it absolutely is.

    1. Well said. I applaud this growth of private space exploration. Are the billionaires douches ? Absolutely. But they are douches on their own dime (mostly) and not wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and getting nowhere for a decade (cough..NASA..cough…ULA..cough)

      For fans of The Expanse, I was hoping Bezos was going to pull a Solomon Epstein.

      Now he’s back I guess the best we can hope for is a Jeffrey Epstein.

    2. Great comment Phantom – I agree with every word.

      It is the achievement that I applaud, and it was achieved by an army of very competent Engineers, Scientists and Technicians. Bezos was just the guy with a big fat chequebook,

    3. Phantom.

      GREAT COMMENT AM in Agreement 100%

      Very nicely done first Bezos funded (actually you n me), human included sub-orbital..? well, just to the edge of space really but still an impressive launch with an impressive Booster return and subsequent capsule landing.

      I’m no fan of this Global Capitalist, but what I just watched was impressive.
      PERIOD. No one can take that away.

    4. I fully agree.

      And it’s a perfect example of why private industry is so much better at making advances in technology than government. It’s been 10 years since the last space shuttle fight. NASA has been working longer than that on a replacement rocket system for space flight. Have they even started to build the first one? And their new model will cost the taxpayer something in the order of 100 billion each.

      True this is nothing like what is needed for orbital flight. But it’s a start, and the advances will come fast.

  13. Probably a lot cheaper to rent a cargo 737 and dive it to experience weightlessness. And safer.

    Impressive but underwhelming result. Got just high enough to call it “space”. (Karman line is 62 miles)

    Sr71 blackbird flew just as fast. X15 a lot faster.

  14. “Branson, Musk, Bezos, they earned the money to do it. They didn’t tax it out of a captive population.”
    Tesla launched on government subsidies, and Amazon profited from government lockdowns, so there’s that.

  15. Further to my comment – while this was all under development, I often wondered why these rockets looked like something out of Fireball XL5. Because they don’t undergo the kinds of stresses a “normal” rocket would, since to get into actual orbit requires escape velocity of about 25000 mph, with low orbit being 17000 mph – Bezos craft went about 2000 mph (not much fuel needed). Most of the stress of the atmosphere was when the craft was still travelling quite slowly – about as fast a a jetliner.

    So tons more fuel required, (Bezos craft looked like it was powered by a large Bernzomatic torch) a fuselage that will require more strength and be larger- which might not be as easily engineered to land again as these do.

    So to get satellites up to Low Orbit or the space station, – and reuse the rocket – is going to require much more technology and engineering that we are seeing right now.

    Again pretty impressive – but maybe not as impressive as I thought when under development.

    1. In two years Bezos has promised the much larger New Glenn rocket, for orbital flight and beyond. Today’s little New Shepard rocket is going to be the second stage of that New Glenn. Fairly impressive, but these are all just refined versions of early 20th century technology.

    2. (Bezos craft looked like it was powered by a large Bernzomatic torch)

      I noticed that as well and it kind of piqued my interest as to what type of fuel he was using – Turns out his BE-4 engine uses liquid Oxygen along with liquified natural gas.
      Makes sense now.
      If he wants to go faster and further…he might have to up his game.

  16. If “2001: A Space Odyssey” were filmed today.

    “Open the pod bay doors, Alexa!!!”

    “I’m sorry Jeff. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  17. And for the next stunt, Bill Swift is gonna make one out of chicken wire and flex paste.. Cock a doodle do (AND can even land on water)!

  18. I’m all for privatized space flight and exploration but this event, other than the retrievable booster, hasn’t accomplished anywhere near what the Mercury flights accomplished – orbital flight. I’m glad it’s Bezos’ money, not mine.

    Rocketry is so damned fuel intensive and explosive, I’ve often wondered if huge (slow blowing) cannons or hybrids wouldn’t prove more feasible.

    1. The first two manned Mercury flights were launched with a Redstone booster, which was a shorter-range ballistic missile. The remainder used the Atlas, which was more powerful and had a longer range.

      Both rockets were originally designed to carry nuclear weapons.

      Cannons wouldn’t be feasible for launching passengers due to the high accelerations. They were considered as a boosting system as far back as the 1960s, when Canada and the U. S. investigated them. (Look up Project HARP.) Tests were conducted from a Navy base on Puerto Rico and the late Dr. Gerald Bull headed the Canadian part of the project.

      The project ended when the Americans pulled out, though I’m not clear as to why.

  20. As I said before . Too bad they aren’t really going onto space because I would love to see the burn up on re-entry.

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