[HN Gopher] Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second...
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Blue Origin lands New Glenn rocket booster on second try
Author : perihelions
Score : 106 points
Date : 2025-11-13 21:24 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (techcrunch.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (techcrunch.com)
| sbuttgereit wrote:
| Beautiful launch and landing.
|
| I still can't stand the public relation heavy official stream...
| but even with all that static the rocket itself cut through.
| d_silin wrote:
| Competition is good. SpaceX is de-facto Amazon of space
| logistics.
| bell-cot wrote:
| Landing (the booster) on their second launch is nice...but I'm
| more impressed by them being (probably...) 2-for-2 on their very
| first couple orbital launch attempts.
|
| (Yes, SpaceX's Falcon reached that milestone back in 2010.)
| ortusdux wrote:
| Anyone know more about the explosive landing feet anchors at
| T+9:55?
| stingrae wrote:
| Potentially welding the feet to the deck detailed in this
| patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240124165A1/en
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| Congrats to the Blue Origin team! That's a heck of a milestone
| (landing it on the second attempt). It will compete more with
| Falcon Heavy than Starship[1] but it certainly could handle all
| of the current GEO satellite designs. I'm sure that the NRO will
| appreciate the larger payload volume as well. Really super glad
| to see they have hardware that has successfully done all the
| things. The first step to making it as reliable as other launch
| platforms. And having a choice for launch services is always a
| good thing for people buying said launch services.
|
| Notably, from a US policy standpoint, if they successfully become
| 'lift capability #2' then it's going to be difficult to ULA to
| continue on.
|
| [1] Although if Starship's lift capacity keeps getting knocked
| back that might change.
| stingrae wrote:
| Doesn't ULA use Blue Origin's rocket engines?
| justapassenger wrote:
| > It will compete more with Falcon Heavy than Starship
|
| Starship is vaporware, so there's nothing to compete with.
| okay_yes wrote:
| </sarcasm>? If not, why do you think Starship is vaporware?
| justapassenger wrote:
| There are prototype that are called Starship.
|
| There's nothing even remotely reassembling what was
| advertised to the public (and sold to the government) as
| Starship.
|
| It's Duke Nukem Forever.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _nothing even remotely reassembling what was advertised
| to the public (and sold to the government) as Starship_
|
| If it can get its mass into orbit, it delivers what it
| sold. I'd currently put my money on a successful orbital
| launch of Starship before New Glenn re-flies a booster
| for a paying customer.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _Starship is vaporware_
|
| Vaporware is "late, never actually manufactured, or
| officially canceled" [1].
|
| Starship is late, so you're pedantically correct. But so is
| New Glenn, and it started being developed when Falcon 9 made
| its first trip to the ISS. (2012.)
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
| justapassenger wrote:
| https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vaporware
|
| "a computer-related product that has been widely advertised
| but has not and may never become available"
|
| It's not available and it's going to be the same as all
| products coming from their CEO - it maybe one day
| available, but only thing it'll share with original
| announced product is a name. Nowhere close on the
| cost/features/scale/etc.
|
| Only things that were shown so far are prototypes that are
| many iterations away from being anywhere close to a
| product.
|
| New Glenn is actual product that's just going through final
| validation steps.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _It 's not available and it's going to be the same as
| all products coming from their CEO - it maybe one day
| available_
|
| Did you miss Falcon 9 and Heavy? (New Glenn competes with
| them, not Starship. Falcon Heavy can launch more mass
| than New Glenn, currently, for cheaper.)
|
| > _New Glenn is actual product that 's just going through
| final validation steps_
|
| This is literally the first time they've successfully
| recovered New Glenn. Recovered. No reuse. It's the second
| time they've every flown the damn thing. It's impressive.
| But it's not "just going through final validation."
|
| I have a background in aerospace engineering,
| specifically astronautics. It's wild to see armchair
| engineers shoot shit at major accomplishments like this.
| Rover222 wrote:
| Insane that it took a decade for another company to do it, but
| better late than never. Great to see. Next up: China.
| perihelions wrote:
| The Zhuque-3 attempt should be a few weeks away,
|
| https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/...
| ( _" China's 1st reusable rocket test fires engines ahead of
| debut flight"_)
| Rover222 wrote:
| I bet the next 5 companies/entities that do it are Chinese.
| throwaway132448 wrote:
| Maybe it tells you a lot about the real commercial demand for
| this.
| mannyv wrote:
| Go Limp Go!
|
| For all the engineers that say management doesn't matter, I give
| you David Limp.
|
| Management doesn't matter until it does.
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| I worked under Dave Limp for multiple years in Amazon's
| Consumer Robotics (like way under, I think he was my manager's
| skip manager?). I like him personally. But
|
| (1) his management in the CoRo group did not lead to success, I
| feel we have/had floundered for about 7 years :(
|
| (2) He only left CoRo to join Blue Origin like 1.5 years ago.
| There's no way his 1.5 years at Blue Origin has had a
| significant organization impact on their achievements. In 4-5
| more years I think his impact will be more evident.
|
| p.s. no offence to Mr. Limp, I must emphasize that he was a
| kind, polite, caring person, and certainly had the capacity for
| great decisions. It is unfortunate that CoRo hasn't had great
| success, and success may yet be just around the corner.
| throwaway132448 wrote:
| When is Jeff's straight arm salute happening? He can't neglect a
| US space programme tradition!
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Full launch video and images of the landing:
| https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/...
| throwaway132448 wrote:
| What do you think they'll call the next barge? I'm hoping for
| Wernher. Or Kurt.
| niwtsol wrote:
| Video of the launch if anyone was looking for it -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iheyXgtG7EI&t=14220s
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