UPDATE: Story first posted June 13, 2005 at 11:05 a.m. EDT
Details of a new passenger-carrying rocket are emerging from
Blue Origin, the Seattle-based company spearheaded by Jeff Bezos, founder of
Amazon.com. The first test flight of the rocket in unpiloted mode is slated for
late next year.
On the group's web site, they have posted an update on their
reusable launch vehicle (RLV) work. The exposure is tied to steps needed in
securing an operator license from the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA)
Office of Commercial Space Transportation in Washington, D.C.
That FAA office has had several meetings with Blue Origin,
said Patricia Smith, Associate Administrator for the Office of Commercial Space
Transportation. She said that a representative from her office will be
participating in Blue Origin activities this week.
"Blue Origin is having public scoping meetings this week in Texas to tell people
what they are doing and hear and assess any public concerns about the impact of
launch activities on the environment," Smith told SPACE.com. "These scoping meetings are one of the activities
required under the National Environmental Protection Act," she added.
Vertical
takeoff and landing
The company wants to create "an enduring human presence in
space," explains the Blue Origin Internet site. "Our initial research efforts
are focused on reusable liquid propulsion systems, low cost operations, life
support, abort systems and human factors. We are currently working to develop a
crewed, suborbital launch system that emphasizes safety and low cost of
operations."
According to a document that's part of the Blue Origin web
site, rocket launchings would take place from the group's facilities under
development in Culberson County,
Texas. The reusable launch
vehicle (RLV) would haul paying passengers on suborbital jaunts. The group's
rocket would be comprised of a propulsion module and a crew capsule. Hydrogen
peroxide and kerosene are to be used as propellants.
The Bezos booster would be fully reusable, flying
autonomously under control of on-board computers. There would be no ground
control during nominal flight conditions, the web site explains.
Lifting off vertically from a concrete pad, the craft would
land vertically in an area near the launch pad. That flight profile is similar
to the trajectory flown by the Pentagon/NASA-sponsored Delta Clipper
Experimental (DC-X).
The DC-X was built under contract at McDonnell Douglas and
repeatedly flew from the White Sands Missile
Range in New Mexico starting in the early 1990s.
"Blue Origin intends to perform unmanned RLV developmental
test flights from the proposed facility beginning in the third quarter of 2006.
Once the technology has been thoroughly tested, Blue Origin would begin
passenger flight service using the RLV at a maximum rate of 52 launches per
year. The RLV would carry three or more passengers per operation."
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