Latest news with #NS-29
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Blue Origin mission simulates moon gravity
Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket and spacecraft completed its moon-gravity mission, but the capsule appeared to have a slight hiccup on its return when one of its parachutes did not open entirely on Tuesday. NS-29 took off from Blue Origin Launch One site in Culberson County, Texas, near El Paso, at about 11 a.m. on Tuesday. The reusable booster rocket made a vertical touchdown on a launching pad seven minutes after launch. The capsule followed in the west Texas desert, but only two of its three parachutes opened fully. The third parachute appeared to open later before landing. Blue Origin officials said, however, the capsule was designed to land safely with two parachutes and they did not report any major issues with landing. Blue Origin, the private space company owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, tested experiments in simulated lunar gravity during the flight. During the trip, the payloads experienced two minutes of lunar gravity, simulated by the New Shepard spacecraft spinning at a rate of 11 revolutions per minute. Blue Origin said the spacecraft achieved moon gravity by using a new Reaction Control System, which will take charge of making the revolutions. The spin simulates one-sixth of the Earth's gravity. "The flight will test six broad lunar technology areas: In-situ resource utilization, dust mitigation, advanced habitation systems, seniors and instrumentation, small spacecraft technologies, and entry descent and landing," Blue Origin said in a statement. "Proving out these technologies at a lower cost is another step toward Blue Origin's mission to lower the cost of access to space for the benefit of Earth." Blue Origin said the test will help NASA move closer to its goals with the Artemis project of exploring the Moon's surface. "Previously, the Moon's gravity could only be simulated a few seconds at a time via centrifuge drop tower or for 20 seconds onboard a parabolic flight," Blue Origin said.
USA Today
04-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Blue Origin spacecraft successfully simulates moon's gravity: See video of launch
Blue Origin spacecraft successfully simulates moon's gravity: See video of launch Blue Origin said the mission sets the stage to better enable NASA and other companies with sights on the moon to test technology critical for exploring the lunar surface. Show Caption Hide Caption Blue Origin simulates lunar gravity during New Shepard launch Blue Origin launched a spacecraft that can simulate lunar gravity into suborbital space during a research flight from West Texas. Blue Origin's famed New Shepard spacecraft successfully simulated the moon's low gravity on board its capsule during a brief flight Tuesday morning over West Texas. Video of the uncrewed launch, which Blue Origin livestreamed, shows the New Shepard climbing to the edge of space, where the capsule separated from the rocket to pull off the feat for the first time in nearly 30 missions. Though the daring maneuver wasn't clear from the launch footage – captured both on the ground and from a fleet of drones – it involved the capsule rotating in such a precise way as to create conditions that would mimic the lunar surface. The space technology company, founded in 2000 by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said in a press release that the mission sets the stage to better enable NASA and other companies with sights on the moon to test technology critical for exploring the lunar surface. The year ahead in space exploration: Uncrewed lunar missions and 1st private space station among 2025 launches What happened during Blue Origin launch from West Texas? The New Shepard launched around 11 a.m. EST from Launch Site One, more than 140 miles east of El Paso in Culberson County, according to Blue Origin. New Shepard is a launch vehicle designed to be fully reusable, with a capsule that returns to Earth via three parachutes. The rocket itself is powered by one BE-3PM engine, which propels it to suborbit before restarting to slow the booster down to just 6 miles per hour for a controlled landing back on the launch pad. The capsule and rocket booster separated nearly three minutes into the flight, and by the fourth minute the capsule had successfully created lunar gravity conditions, according to Blue Origin's livestream coverage. The booster then touched back down within 7-and-a-half minutes of takeoff. Though one of its three parachutes was slow to deploy, the capsule also safely landed just after 10 minutes into the flight in a remote area as a team deployed to recover the craft and its scientific payloads. The company first tried to launch the NS-29 mission on Jan. 28, but called off that attempt due to poor weather and technical issues. How did the New Shepard spacecraft simulate lunar gravity? The New Shepard mission is far from the first to carry scientific payloads to the edge of space, but it was the first to mimic the moon's gravity. The gravitational pull of the lunar surface is about 1/6 that of Earth's, meaning a person who weighs about 100 pounds would feel closer to just 17 pounds on the moon. To simulate those conditions, the capsule had to spin at a rate of about 11 revolutions per minute, providing about two minutes of lunar gravity forces. Previously, the moon's gravity could only be simulated for a few seconds at a time at NASA's zero-gravity research facility using a centrifuge, or for about 20 seconds during parabolic flights, Blue Origin said. The spacecraft carried 30 science payloads, all but one of which was to test technology under lunar-like conditions. Almost all of the cargo belonged to NASA, which helped fund the mission as the U.S. space agency prepares to send humans back to the moon in the years ahead under its Artemis campaign. What to know about Blue Origin's spaceflight missions The flight test comes as Blue Origin continues to become a major player in the commercial space industry – competing with the likes of billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX for NASA's business, as well as the business of other private companies. Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, New Shepard can hold up to six passengers for a brief voyage above the Kármán Line – the 62-mile-high internationally recognized boundary of outer space. Nine of Blue Origin's 29 missions have carried humans to the edge of space, allowing a total of 47 passengers so far to experience a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule returns to Earth. Bezos himself joined the spacecraft's first crewed flight in 2021 as part of the NS-16 mission, which came after New Shepard flew 15 times without a crew since 2012. The latest launch of the New Shepard vehicle comes less than a month since Blue Origin got its massive New Glenn rocket off the ground for its maiden flight. The 320-foot heavy-lift launch vehicle, which launched without a crew on Jan. 16 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, is meant to challenge SpaceX in regularly deploying satellites and other cargo into orbit. Named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, the New Glenn rivals SpaceX's 400-foot Starship in size. Its first stage, powered by seven Blue Origin engines known as BE-4, is designed to be reusable for 25 missions. Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blue Origin to simulate moon gravity on Jan. 28 New Shepard suborbital launch
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Blue Origin will launch the 29th mission of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle next week, on an uncrewed research flight that will simulate lunar gravity conditions. The mission, known as NS-29, is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site on Tuesday (Jan. 28) at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT; 10 a.m. local Texas time). The company, which was founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, will webcast the action live, beginning 15 minutes before liftoff. New Shepard is a reusable rocket-capsule combo named after Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space. The vehicle is best known for carrying paying customers on brief trips to suborbital space. But NS-29 is not a space tourist flight; the capsule is packed with 30 research payloads, "all but one of which is focused on testing lunar-related technologies," Blue Origin wrote in a mission description. "The payloads will experience at least two minutes of lunar gravity forces, a first for New Shepard and made possible in part through support from NASA," the company added. "The flight will test six broad lunar technology areas: in-situ resource utilization, dust mitigation, advanced habitation systems, sensors and instrumentation, small spacecraft technologies, and entry, descent and landing." New Shepard will create those "lunar gravity forces" by firing its reaction-control thrusters so that it rotates about 11 times per minute. Related: New Shepard: Rocket for space tourism RELATED STORIES: — Facts about New Shepard, Blue Origin's rocket for space tourism — The future of space tourism — 'One of the cleanest flights I've seen.' Blue Origin launches 6 people to space, lands safely on NS-26 flight (video) NASA is a big part of NS-29: More than half of the 30 payloads going up on the mission are supported by the agency's Flight Opportunities Program, according to Blue Origin. This should come as no surprise; NASA is working to return astronauts to the moon via its Artemis program and is keen to gather data about the lunar environment to facilitate this effort. Four of the 30 payloads belong to Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin subsidiary focused on off-Earth exploration. You can learn more about the NS-29 research gear here and here. Nine of New Shepard's 28 flights to date have been crewed. The vehicle's most recent mission sent "The Space Gal" Emily Calandrelli and five other people to suborbital space on Nov. 22.
