On Tuesday morning, Wally Funk finally made it to space, six decades after she and the other women of the Mercury 13 were cut off from the possibility of becoming astronauts by a government policy that was deeply and inflexibly misogynistic. Oh, and she took Jeff Bezos along.
Blue Origin’s “New Shepard” rocket carried Bezos, his brother, aviation pioneer Funk, and a Dutch 18-year-old whose billionaire hedge fund manager father paid for his ticket. The rocket was well-named in that its flight was an approximation of that carried out by Alan Shepard when he became the first American in space in 1961. Except … not quite. Shepard reached an altitude of 116 miles and finished 300 miles downrange. New Shepard just went straight up for 65 miles and 10 minutes later it dropped its passengers a short walk from where they took off.
A week earlier, British billionaire Richard Branson joined two pilots and four other crew members for a flight of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space plane. In that flight, Branson and company were carried to 50,000 feet with their craft strapped to the belly of a giant jet. From there, the Unity was dropped, the pilots ignited a rocket engine, and the whole team, consisting of Branson and Virgin Galactic employees, blasted upwards to 53.5 miles. Half an hour later, the plane was expertly guided to a smooth landing at a “space port” in New Mexico.
It’s pointless to argue whether or not either flight really “went to space.” Both teams are already slapping on their “astronaut wings.” But the question is, have they actually achieved anything? Of course they have. Branson has managed to take the X-15, which first flew in 1959, scale it up, and get it safe enough to transport a CEO. Bezos has given the same update to a Redstone missile.
Together they’ve created a new class of rollercoaster for the world’s most exclusive amusement park.
It’s not as if they don’t know how to put on a show. Branson had Steven Colbert standing by to make quips at his launch. Bezos had every news organization trying to set a record on the use of the word “historic.” Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin had their own teams standing by with stirring music, sharply edited promo reels, and breathless announcements. Oh, and there were uniforms—both companies outfitted everyone with their best faux right stuff chic.
And of course, Bezos had Wally Funk, whose long delayed trip beyond the atmosphere may be the only unalloyed good to come out of either flight.
What happens now? Not much, really.
Bezos’ unfortunately shaped New Shepard appears to be a reliable automated pogo stick, able to send people going five minutes up, followed by five minutes down. The biggest issue with the craft is why it’s so incredibly slow. Not slow in terms of how fast it travels in flight, but so incredibly slow getting to that flight. Blue Origin was actually formed in 2000, two years before SpaceX. The company stuck its first attempted at a vertical landing in 2005, eight years ahead of SpaceX “grasshopper” test vehicle. And then … Blue Origin seemed to just get stuck in molasses.
The company, which has the motto Gradatim Ferociter (step-by-step, ferociously) had demonstrated very little ferocity, and not even a lot of steps. New Shepard first flew in 2015 and seems to have changed very little over the last six years. Over that time, Bezos’ rocket firm has averaged just over two suborbital launches per year. In comparison, SpaceX launched their fleet of Falcon 9s 26 times in 2020 alone, and has sent three crews into orbit.
Blue Origin is supposed to be building a very large new rocket named he New Glenn that would compete with SpaceX in terms of taking cargo to orbit. And, like SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Bezos has said he has a long-term goal in space. In Bezos’ case, that’s constructing large orbital stations where thousands or even millions could live and work. However, while SpaceX’s successes—and explosive failures—have been very visible, there’s very little sign of progress on the New Glenn. There’s a very impressive new factory right outside the gates of Kennedy Space Center, but all the public had seen of the new rocket is one half of one fairing—though Bezos has delivered a pair of the new engines Blue Origin is using to power their Glenn, as well as the upcoming Vulcan rocket from United Launch Alliance.
In any case, New Shepard did its job—it’s generating publicity for a company that, in terms of technical advances, has very little to show for 20 years of investments. It will now provide its not-quite-as-good-as-1961 flights to anyone who can pony up the price. Though, considering the rate at which the rocket has been turned around in the past, it wouldn’t seem Bezos is really going to be taking down any profit from that ticket window.
On Branson’s side of the ledger, there’s an equal not-a-lot to come from this. When aircraft designer Burt Rutan sketched out SpaceShipOne, he did so with a very specific purpose: to win the Ansasi X-prize. What Branson has now is just another generation of that same design. It can go to 53 miles and glide back, but it’s not a scalable solution. It’s not only never going to orbit, it’s not really something that could be finagled into a design that could go to orbit. And as far as his space ambitions go, that seems to be the limit for Branson. He has another company, Virgin Orbit, that is launching small satellites, and their LauncherOne rocket has successfully reached orbit, so … that’s something Bezos’ company has yet to achieve.
One thing that Bezos has over Branson is automation. The VSS Unity takes some very skilled piloting at all stages of the flight. An earlier craft was actually lost, and one pilot killed. Just a few months ago, a flight was aborted when the rocket engine failed. In terms of safety, Bezos’ probably has that over Branson by a significant margin. There’s little doubt that, had Bezos not announced his flight, Branson would still be putting his ship through its paces. Oh, and Branson started building his plane in 2008 with predictions that it would fly by 2010, so it’s not as if he’s quite on schedule. Don’t expect a lot of additional flights from Virgin Galactic this year, either.
Overall, both companies have built crafts that demonstrate how decades of new technology can allow an experience that was limited to the most advanced pilots in 1960 to be turned into a brief, amusing ride for the very wealthy. Neither seems set to either repeat their trick with great regularity, or to extend their system into something that’s more than an even pricier version of Space Mountain.
And while there’s a lot of talk about how these trips to space might give people “new perspective,” don’t count on it. When the first images came back from Apollo 8, showing the whole Earth as a single blue orb caught against infinite night, it was a revelatory, even spiritual moment; one that made many people rethink their positions around nations, humanity, and the environment. But what these billionaires and millionaires are likely to get from their very high flight is a different kind of perspective: how very small we all seem from their privileged perch.
Finally, on the only achievement that may really count for these guys, Barron’s reports that Virgin Galactic’s stock is getting “hammered” following the Blue Origin flight. That’s the kind of achievement that matters to the modern space pioneer.
Blue Origin’s “New Shepard” rocket carried Bezos, his brother, aviation pioneer Funk, and a Dutch 18-year-old whose billionaire hedge fund manager father paid for his ticket. The rocket was well-named in that its flight was an approximation of that carried out by Alan Shepard when he became the first American in space in 1961. Except … not quite. Shepard reached an altitude of 116 miles and finished 300 miles downrange. New Shepard just went straight up for 65 miles and 10 minutes later it dropped its passengers a short walk from where they took off.
A week earlier, British billionaire Richard Branson joined two pilots and four other crew members for a flight of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space plane. In that flight, Branson and company were carried to 50,000 feet with their craft strapped to the belly of a giant jet. From there, the Unity was dropped, the pilots ignited a rocket engine, and the whole team, consisting of Branson and Virgin Galactic employees, blasted upwards to 53.5 miles. Half an hour later, the plane was expertly guided to a smooth landing at a “space port” in New Mexico.
It’s pointless to argue whether or not either flight really “went to space.” Both teams are already slapping on their “astronaut wings.” But the question is, have they actually achieved anything? Of course they have. Branson has managed to take the X-15, which first flew in 1959, scale it up, and get it safe enough to transport a CEO. Bezos has given the same update to a Redstone missile.
Together they’ve created a new class of rollercoaster for the world’s most exclusive amusement park.
It’s not as if they don’t know how to put on a show. Branson had Steven Colbert standing by to make quips at his launch. Bezos had every news organization trying to set a record on the use of the word “historic.” Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin had their own teams standing by with stirring music, sharply edited promo reels, and breathless announcements. Oh, and there were uniforms—both companies outfitted everyone with their best faux right stuff chic.
And of course, Bezos had Wally Funk, whose long delayed trip beyond the atmosphere may be the only unalloyed good to come out of either flight.
What happens now? Not much, really.
Bezos’ unfortunately shaped New Shepard appears to be a reliable automated pogo stick, able to send people going five minutes up, followed by five minutes down. The biggest issue with the craft is why it’s so incredibly slow. Not slow in terms of how fast it travels in flight, but so incredibly slow getting to that flight. Blue Origin was actually formed in 2000, two years before SpaceX. The company stuck its first attempted at a vertical landing in 2005, eight years ahead of SpaceX “grasshopper” test vehicle. And then … Blue Origin seemed to just get stuck in molasses.
The company, which has the motto Gradatim Ferociter (step-by-step, ferociously) had demonstrated very little ferocity, and not even a lot of steps. New Shepard first flew in 2015 and seems to have changed very little over the last six years. Over that time, Bezos’ rocket firm has averaged just over two suborbital launches per year. In comparison, SpaceX launched their fleet of Falcon 9s 26 times in 2020 alone, and has sent three crews into orbit.
Blue Origin is supposed to be building a very large new rocket named he New Glenn that would compete with SpaceX in terms of taking cargo to orbit. And, like SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Bezos has said he has a long-term goal in space. In Bezos’ case, that’s constructing large orbital stations where thousands or even millions could live and work. However, while SpaceX’s successes—and explosive failures—have been very visible, there’s very little sign of progress on the New Glenn. There’s a very impressive new factory right outside the gates of Kennedy Space Center, but all the public had seen of the new rocket is one half of one fairing—though Bezos has delivered a pair of the new engines Blue Origin is using to power their Glenn, as well as the upcoming Vulcan rocket from United Launch Alliance.
In any case, New Shepard did its job—it’s generating publicity for a company that, in terms of technical advances, has very little to show for 20 years of investments. It will now provide its not-quite-as-good-as-1961 flights to anyone who can pony up the price. Though, considering the rate at which the rocket has been turned around in the past, it wouldn’t seem Bezos is really going to be taking down any profit from that ticket window.
On Branson’s side of the ledger, there’s an equal not-a-lot to come from this. When aircraft designer Burt Rutan sketched out SpaceShipOne, he did so with a very specific purpose: to win the Ansasi X-prize. What Branson has now is just another generation of that same design. It can go to 53 miles and glide back, but it’s not a scalable solution. It’s not only never going to orbit, it’s not really something that could be finagled into a design that could go to orbit. And as far as his space ambitions go, that seems to be the limit for Branson. He has another company, Virgin Orbit, that is launching small satellites, and their LauncherOne rocket has successfully reached orbit, so … that’s something Bezos’ company has yet to achieve.
One thing that Bezos has over Branson is automation. The VSS Unity takes some very skilled piloting at all stages of the flight. An earlier craft was actually lost, and one pilot killed. Just a few months ago, a flight was aborted when the rocket engine failed. In terms of safety, Bezos’ probably has that over Branson by a significant margin. There’s little doubt that, had Bezos not announced his flight, Branson would still be putting his ship through its paces. Oh, and Branson started building his plane in 2008 with predictions that it would fly by 2010, so it’s not as if he’s quite on schedule. Don’t expect a lot of additional flights from Virgin Galactic this year, either.
Overall, both companies have built crafts that demonstrate how decades of new technology can allow an experience that was limited to the most advanced pilots in 1960 to be turned into a brief, amusing ride for the very wealthy. Neither seems set to either repeat their trick with great regularity, or to extend their system into something that’s more than an even pricier version of Space Mountain.
And while there’s a lot of talk about how these trips to space might give people “new perspective,” don’t count on it. When the first images came back from Apollo 8, showing the whole Earth as a single blue orb caught against infinite night, it was a revelatory, even spiritual moment; one that made many people rethink their positions around nations, humanity, and the environment. But what these billionaires and millionaires are likely to get from their very high flight is a different kind of perspective: how very small we all seem from their privileged perch.
Finally, on the only achievement that may really count for these guys, Barron’s reports that Virgin Galactic’s stock is getting “hammered” following the Blue Origin flight. That’s the kind of achievement that matters to the modern space pioneer.