Texas Spaceport

[johnastovall]

Jeff Bezos is developing both a spaceport and suborbital carrier in Far West Texas.
His company, Blue Origins complete the first test flight of the Goodard this past November.

[Rick Waldroup]

Okay, I'm hooked John. When do book our reservations.

I noticed that there was not a photo of the actual lift-off. Is that to protect trade secrets on the propulsion system they have designed? Am I right in that it will require no booster rocket to lift it into orbit?

I hope they can pull this off. Don't you just love American ingenuity?

[TXhummer2]

What a decision! Blue Origins or Moller.....

[JamesB]

no photos of this?? thats funny because the videos of the take off are all over the net

James

[Rick Waldroup]

I must have missed the video of it. I'll have to back and check it out. Harris, I saw one of the Moller's at the State Fair a couple of years ago. That was pretty cool.

[Stephen H]

That site has several videos of the test launch.

[Rick Waldroup]

Yep, I just watched the video. For some reason I kept thinking those were all stills on the site. Not only am I getting old, I'm going blind too.

[markfh]

It will be interesting if this project goes anywhere since what he did, as in the video, was done about 10 years ago by one of the bigger companies.

At the time they determined this method would be impractical for reaching orbit and returning.

I suppose technology may have changed but I wonder how much it could change to keep the over all weight of fuel down to make it practical.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by markfh

It will be interesting if this project goes anywhere since what he did, as in the video, was done about 10 years ago by one of the bigger companies.

At the time they determined this method would be impractical for reaching orbit and returning.

I suppose technology may have changed but I wonder how much it could change to keep the over all weight of fuel down to make it practical.

That was MacDak's DC-X (Delta Clipper) project.

Actual what killed it were two things. John Deutch as DoD chief of acquisition and technology was opposed to SSTO and MacDak only built one and when it had an accident and they saw the way the wind was blowing at DoD their customer, they pulled the plug.

It met all it's Phase III testing.

This is not political but the reason there aren't several hundred thousand people on the Moon, Mars and in space habitats has nothing to do with Technology but everything to do with politics.

Suggested reading is Dyson, F. "Death of a Project," Science, 149, 141-44 (1965).

Here's a summary of the Taylor-Dyson concept and what happened.

[Stephen H]

I was wondering where that is- generally south of Guadalupe Mountain National Park, it says.

[Daniel Bates]

YES!!!!! I see future employment!

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by Stephen H

I was wondering where that is- generally south of Guadalupe Mountain National Park, it says.

Here are directions on how to get there.

[Al Buckner]

Maybe we could get an official invite to a launch (test or real) to do a photoshoot. Could Abel make a request to their Media Contact (listed on the website)!

I'm sure they couldn't handle everyone that wanted to go; but maybe TPF could have a lottery system to choose.

And maybe we could get an invite to just bring a bunch (as many as we wanted) to go out on a press/photo trip someday, even if it is not a launch day.

Do you think we could pull it off?

[TXhummer2]

I had high hopes back in 1996 working for MacDak, but left immediately after the Bong company took over.