What Blue Origin is Up To

[Yazata]

Elon's reaction to somebody on Reddit posting the photo of the Project Jarvis test tank with the caption "Hey Elon, can I copy your homework?" A bunch of laughter emojis.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1430267766792245249

Ouch! The Daily Hopper's reaction

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E9lb2qoXMAEm...name=large

[Yazata]

I've long said that Blue Origin needs to announce something exciting.

And Blue has just announced something cool, called Orbital Reef. It's envisioned as a commercial space station in low earth orbit. They plan to launch its modules with their New Glenn rocket. Some of it looks like it will be inflatable Bigelow-style habitats. Crew access will be by Boeing Starliner and by Sierra Space Dreamchaser spaceplanes.

The say that they are working with a number of universities to develop research facilities in space (Stanford, Vanderbilt, Arizona State University and many more). They say their station will be available for manufacturers who want to explore industrial processes in microgravity. The idea seems to be to develop what amounts to a research and business park in space available to all sorts of tenants. It will also be available to space tourism and can host astronauts from other countries.

https://www.orbitalreef.com/ 

press release

https://blueorigin-static-assets.s3.amaz...elease.pdf

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/SC3ooNXfcGE

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Sounds like he's making the first incremental steps toward those giant habitats in space he was talking about back in 2019. Whatever, it's good to get over his fixation on the Moon and dependence on NASA, and start doing his own thing in a bigger way than brief tourist jaunts barely past the Karman Line.

[Yazata]

Julia Bergeron was outside Blue's rocket plant at Cape Canaveral today and spotted this:

It's a non-flyable manufacturing "pathfinder" of Blue's New Glenn reusable first stage booster. Not as big as the Starship's Superheavy booster, but big nevertheless. They may or may not use it for pressure tests.

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[Yazata]

Shades of the unique Boca Chica traffic jams! The first new Glenn booster pathfinder being transported down the road at Cape Canaveral to the launch pad, for what I assume will be fit-checks. I see light shining through it so it seemingly doesn't have propellant tanks.

Photo by Julia Bergeron

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[Yazata]

Former New York Giant football player Michael Strahan says that he will be flying on Blue's suborbital New Shephard rocket on December 9. He still holds the pro football record for quarterback sacks, so if there are any quarterbacks on the Space Station, I'd be very afraid.

https://twitter.com/michaelstrahan/statu...4075446275

[Yazata]

https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/15...9516834816

The photo below is PQE-602, the first Blue Origin BE-4 engine manufactured in flight-configuration, after hot-fire testing on a west Texas test stand where it accomplished multiple start and restart cycles and accumulated 2,500 seconds of burn time (a lot for a rocket engine). (Blue Origin photo) It appears to me that this is still a development engine and not a production model, given the tangle of little tubing on its power-head. These presumably belong to temperature and pressure sensors and the production engines will look a lot cleaner.

PQE-900 hit 5,000 seconds and 35 restarts!

https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/15...4084796416

https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/15...1537779712

Reportedly production BE-4's are now being manufactured and will soon be on the way to Tory at ULA, so he doesn't have to keep asking "Jeff, where are my engines?" BE-4's will be what powers ULA's new Vulcan rocket.

https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/151...9272177665

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At least something is happening besides dallying in light sycophancy, trying not to ruffle Biden's retributive side with respect to rocket affairs. Lobbying policymakers and offering jobs slash internships to bureaucrats and legislators after their government and political services end, along with providing employment roles for their offspring, too. "I got a gift from one of Bezos's execs this morning. You know, he may be a billionaire, but he seems an alright guy. Not like that other one."

[Yazata]

Famous youtuber (who naturally I've never heard of) wins a ride into space on Blue Origin's tourist rocket. The guy is a little annoying, but the video has interesting shots and audio from inside the capsule from launch to landing.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/YXXlSG-du7c

[Yazata]

Things might actually be happening inside Blue Origin's beautiful spotless Cape Canaveral factory.

Photo's of what appears to be New Glenn parts posted to Twitter by David Willis (@ThePrimalDino)

Unknown whether these are flight items, test articles or manufacturing pathfinders. My guess is test articles.

From the photos, it looks like New Glenn is closer to Falcon 9 in size than it is to Starship or SLS. I guess growing as big as Starship is a task reserved for New Armstrong, which so far only exists on paper.

A propellant tank

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What is said to be the thrust section (where the engines attach)

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