The Purpose Of Blue Origin’s New Shepard Launch Vehicle
For quite a while now, Blue Origin has been launching and operating the New Shepard launch vehicle. Recently the amount of launches has been picking up, bringing more and more humans to the edge of space for the first time. The launch vehicle hosts a lot of unique features that help make it stand out from rockets across the industry. However, this can bring up the question of what exactly the purpose of New Shepard is.
New Shepard while not meant to enter Earth’s orbit still has multiple purposes that Blue Origin points out. Some of the main ones include protecting our planet, human-tended research opportunities, and experience for the company. All of which is meant to not only help our own planet and current issues but help innovate and provide experience for future more ambitious launch vehicles and goals.
There are many different types of rockets that are built. Each has unique capabilities along with challenges throughout the entire process. While Blue Origin and launch vehicles such as New Shepard often receive a negative view from different groups, it’s important to point out that whether you are a fan of the company or not their success is likely to benefit the space industry and more.
Blue Origin Goal & Purpose
Over time Blue Origin has made it clear the purpose of the company and what exactly they are working towards in the future. Specifically, the company was founded by Jeff Bezos with the vision of helping create a future where millions of people are living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue Origin believes “in order to preserve Earth, humanity will need to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that stress Earth into space.” In addition to helping the future of Earth and expanding our capabilities, Blue Origin has some more important goals. These include increasing access to space through reusable rockets, safety, operational reusability, and the perfection of flight. All of which help work towards a bigger goal related to our planet.
Blue Origin is by no means a fan-favorite company within the space industry. This has to do with a long list of reasons including progress, lawsuits, and more. However, it’s important to realize that whether or not you like the company, their success will have a positive impact on the rest of the space industry. Not only in future developments but increased competition, innovation, and more within the entire industry. For this reason, I think it’s important to highlight some of the company’s goals in this case with their current launch vehicle New Shepard.
New Shepard’s Purpose
Protect Our Planet – The first purpose of New Shepard that Blue Origin points out has to do with environmental measures and protecting our planet. A common theme you will see with Blue Origin is how much they stress the importance of reusability for practically every aspect. The company believes that building a road to space starts with reusable vehicles and New Shepard is the first step working towards creating that reality. When designing New Shepard, Blue Origin focused on certain aspects including operational reusability and minimal maintenance between flights from day one. This is meant to not only decrease the cost to launch and access space but also reduce waste in the process.
Blue Origin points out that “nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, ring fin, engine, landing gear, and parachutes.” In addition, a lot of work went into the engine powering New Shepard which is the BE-3PM. This engine is fueled by liquid oxygen and hydrogen which are not only highly efficient but also clean. This results in a byproduct of New Shepard’s engine combustion of water vapor with no carbon during flight. While New Shepard by itself will not save and protect our planet, the technology and goal will be applied to future launch vehicles that could have a more significant impact over time.
Human-Tended Research Opportunities – The next purpose of New Shepard has to do with research and development. Specifically, human-tended research opportunities. At first, New Shepard was launching without any humans and had the ability to carry smaller payloads to the edge of space. Here you are offered a short period of time within a very unique environment the offers a lot of different benefits. Now with the launch vehicle consistently launching humans, there are many opportunities for a wide range of research, education, and technology development. Just recently on December 11th Blue Origin successfully completed the third human spaceflight mission with six astronauts on board for the first time.
With access to more astronauts on board, the company can add skilled hands, extending the laboratory to space and training different crews for real-world flight operations in the future. As Blue Origin continues to bring more astronauts and become more consistent when launching, these goals and progress will only accelerate. In addition Blue Origin offers to send something to space with each mission. On New Shepard you can fly you research or technology. This applies to different groups such as a school who wants their own space program and more.
Experience – The last purpose of New Shepard that I wanted to mention has to do with the future of Blue Origin as a company and their experience. Every company starts somewhere and has an initial idea for the future. While its often not even close to the end goal it provides a good starting ground and epxierence for future endeavors. New Shepard has a lot of different features that are very important to each of Blue Origin’s goals and plans for the future. While this rocket alone will not change the world, it will be the stepping stone for future more impactful rockets. An example could be reusablity. Currently on New Shepard the booster along with the module on top both fall back toward Earth and safely land. In the boosters case it manages to slow down, orient itself, and light its engine for a safe and smooth landing.
While this is on a small case and a very specific rocket, this exact technology and experience will be used on future launch vehicles. New Glenn for example is setting up to be a fully reusable launch vehicle. While very different in size, components, and general hardware, the knowledge and experience gained from New Shepard will undoubtedly have an impact on the development and future success of the rocket. Another example could be the BE-3 engine. New Glenn is planning on using 9 BE-4 engines which are an upgrade in many ways including taking what was learned from the BE-3 and improving it in many different aspects.
Conclusion
With so many different companies popping up within the space industry, it can be hard to keep track of all the progress and work towards the future. In addition each company or agency has a different goal and plan for the future. In Blue Origin’s case, with launch vehicles such as New Shepard the goal is to protect our planet, increase research and development, and help prepare the company for future endeavors and launch vehicles. New Shepard by itself will not have a big impact on the future of the world or more but the knowledge and experience gained from it definitely could. We will have to wait and see the future of New Shepard and the impact it has on future plans of Blue Origin.