Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: Blue Origin

“Our next flight is going to be dramatic, no matter how it ends,” explains Jeff Bezos, lead rocketeer of the Blue Origin group and Amazon.com guru.

Bezos notes in a new update that “this upcoming flight will be our toughest test yet.” The test should be in the first part of October, he says, “and we’ll webcast it live for your viewing pleasure. Details to come.”

Escape in flight

What Blue Origin will attempt is to intentionally trigger an escape in flight and at the most stressing condition: maximum dynamic pressure through transonic velocities.

Rocketeer Jeff Bezos.
Credit: Blue Origin

“We’ll be doing our in-flight escape test with the same reusable New Shepard booster that we’ve already flown four times,” Bezos adds. “About 45 seconds after liftoff at about 16,000 feet, we’ll intentionally command escape. Redundant separation systems will sever the crew capsule from the booster at the same time we ignite the escape motor.”

Here’s the scenario

The escape motor will vector thrust to steer the capsule to the side, out of the booster’s path. The high acceleration portion of the escape lasts less than two seconds, but by then the capsule will be hundreds of feet away and diverging quickly. It will traverse twice through transonic velocities – the most difficult control region – during the acceleration burn and subsequent deceleration.

The capsule will then coast, stabilized by reaction control thrusters, until it starts descending. Its three drogue parachutes will deploy near the top of its flight path, followed shortly thereafter by main parachutes.

Standard trajectory profile.
Credit: Blue Origin

Bad news for booster?

“It’s the first ever rocket booster to fly above the Karman line into space and then land vertically upon the Earth. And it’s done so multiple times. We’d really like to retire it after this test and put it in a museum,” Bezos explains.

“Sadly, that’s not likely. This test will probably destroy the booster. The booster was never designed to survive an in-flight escape,” Bezos adds.

The capsule escape motor will slam the booster with 70,000 pounds of off-axis force delivered by searing hot exhaust. The aerodynamic shape of the vehicle quickly changes from leading with the capsule to leading with the ring fin, and this all happens at maximum dynamic pressure.

Good-bye booster? Next flight may see desert impact.
Credit: Blue Origin

Retirement party

“Nevertheless, the booster is very robust and our Monte Carlo simulations show there’s some chance we can fly through these disturbances and recover the booster. If the booster does manage to survive this flight – its fifth – we will in fact reward it for its service with a retirement party and put it in a museum,” Bezos points out.

“In the more likely event that we end up sacrificing the booster in service of this test, it will still have most of its propellant on board at the time escape is triggered, and its impact with the desert floor will be most impressive,” Bezos concludes.

Check out this animation of what’s to come at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5i-f-D_A-M&feature=youtu.be