back to article Mannequin Skywalker takes high ground on Bezos-backed rocket

Jeff Bezos-founded spaceflight firm Blue Origin set a company record yesterday by sending its capsule on a sub-orbital trajectory with an apogee of 351,000 feet (107km) before landing both booster and capsule safely in West Texas. It was the company's eighth flight using the third version of the New Shepard booster – a single- …

  1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Units

    a combined 3.85 million pounds of thrust

    RegI or SI, please.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Units

      Feel the Force, Instrumented Skywalker!

    2. phuzz Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Units

      "RegI or SI, please."

      Yes please.

      (but for those that are too lazy to convert themselves: 17MN or 171 kilo-Norrises)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Units

        I only work in football pitches or swimming pool units..

        1. spold Silver badge

          Re: Units

          Furlongs per fortnight.

          1. Eddy Ito
            Coat

            Re: Units

            Furlongs per fortnight.

            By my calculation that's 3.05 Giga Firkenlongnight.

            The real question is whether it can keep it up all firken night long, amirite?

    3. Vulch

      Re: Units

      Very obvious in the coverage yesterday. Everything was given in obscure units, mph, feet, pounds, etc.. The only metric unit I noticed creeping in was a mention of crossing 100km altitude.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Units - 3.85 million pounds of thrust

      Isn't that just a little bit more than 1% of the force exerted by a Brexit Campaign bus? :-)

    5. arctic_haze

      Re: Units

      3.85 million pounds equals 5.29 million dollars.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Maybe it's the schoolboy in me (snigger)...

    but could they not fund this entire venture by selling vibrating models of this rocket in adult shops?

    Mine the dirty mac.

    1. zebthecat

      Re: Maybe it's the schoolboy in me (snigger)...

      You're not wrong.

      I suspect Jeff Bezos used Flesh Gordon as inspiration.

    2. spold Silver badge

      Re: Maybe it's the schoolboy in me (snigger)...

      Does this make the launch video a blue movie?

      Never mind feel the thrust...

      Designed to penetrate the atmosphere.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe it's the schoolboy in me (snigger)...

      The Good Shagger.

    4. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Maybe it's the schoolboy in me (snigger)...

      Obligatory Austin Powers reference.

    5. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Alert

      Re: Maybe it's the schoolboy in me (snigger)...

      @Lost all faith...

      by selling vibrating models of...

      The truth is stranger than fiction. But I guess once bitten twice shy, Mattel won't be bringing out a model of the rocket anytime soon...

      Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 vibrating broomstick

      https://www.methodshop.com/2003/12/harry-potter-broomstick.shtml

      ...scroll down halfway for the reviews captured from Amazon

  3. Aladdin Sane
    Thumb Up

    Mannequin Skywalker

    Nice Clerks 2 reference.

    1. not.known@this.address

      Re: Mannequin Skywalker

      I thought it was because of the wooden acting (well, standing ./+ running around whining) of the character in the Prequels...

      ..which I always considered a bit of an insult to the 80's movie with the (Jefferson) Starship soundtrack (ooh, lookit - another space link!)

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: Mannequin Skywalker

        It's Star Wars, not Safe Space.

    2. Zwuramunga

      Re: Mannequin Skywalker

      Hope he wore his Dark Helmet!

  4. Toilet Duk

    All these billionaires and their big, huge rockets with massive thrust. What can they be compensating for?

    1. DNTP

      What are they compensating for

      A lack of government interest in developing reusable platforms to low orbit.

      1. JimmyPage Silver badge
        Stop

        Re: What are they compensating for

        Downvoted because I'm not sure why it's the role of the government to develop reusable LEO platforms ?????

        By all means encourage and facilitate (via tax breaks and regulation).

        But given how good governments are at wasting money, don't let them run the show.

        1. ArrZarr Silver badge

          Re: What are they compensating for

          @JimmyPage

          It's easy to get confused when the biggest players in the launch market were all government organisations until the last 3(ish) years. As the primary stakeholders in said launch market, their progress had stalled pretty heavily.

      2. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Re: What are they compensating for

        I had no idea Jeff was in the space biz.

        I guess they are looking for a new tax haven.

        That , or a quicker delivery method of hurling parcels from orbit.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Lack of escape velocity?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > "All these billionaires and their big, huge rockets with massive thrust. What can they be compensating for?"

      Um, gravity?

  5. Chozo
    Coat

    Mind Boggles

    North Korea tinkers with a some old Soviet missiles, world collectively craps itself.

    Eccentric businessman with more money than a Bond villain builds a missile, nobody worries?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mind Boggles

      Well, it depends. One will drop an iPhone and a mannequin on you, the other presumably has a fake nuke in it.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Mind Boggles

        One will drop a note on you saying, "we tried to nuke you but you were out - please collect your bombing from a depot 20mi away open only between 2:00am and 2:15am on the 3rd thursday in Lent"

  6. anothercynic Silver badge

    SI please

    A mix of the two just causes the same issues as a certain Mars mission...

    That said, Bezos doing this is brilliant. :-)

  7. Slx

    Could they not have made it look... you know.. a bit .. nice (and less like a fiery sex toy with crude branding?)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They tried to make a vagina shaped version but the drag was a bit much

      1. spold Silver badge

        >> They tried to make a vagina shaped version but the drag was a bit much

        And it flapped around a bit

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Form follows function. It's just a cosmic accident that a 1-stage sub-orbital rocket that can land on its own will have the form of a big wanker.

      1. Mark 85
        Coat

        So, it's in the image of the creator then? I'll get my coat.

  8. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Yawn

    Wake me up when he actually reaches orbit like a big boy.

    Of the dozen space sites I read daily, only one even covered this, as suborbital is just a simple touchpaper rocket.

    Supposedly Jeff Who? is selling $1bn in Amazon stock a year to keep this going.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yawn

      It's not really a launch vehicle, it's a glorified carnival ride for suicidal rich kids. Besos is just filling a niche.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Yawn

        it's a glorified carnival ride for suicidal rich kids. Besos is just filling a niche

        nicheditch

      2. Cuddles

        Re: Yawn

        "It's not really a launch vehicle, it's a glorified carnival ride for suicidal rich kids."

        Indeed. This gets a lot of abuse for not being a real rocket and not being particularly useful in terms of science or landing probes on Mars or whatever. But the fact remains that if I were a billionaire, I would totally pay for my next holiday to involve being shot into space (which this rocket does reach), even if I didn't actually stay in orbit. Not everything needs to be pushing the boundaries of human achievement; if a few rich people just want to ride a really big rollercoaster, good for them.

        1. imanidiot Silver badge

          Re: Yawn

          It's all over in 10 minutes. Even for the other (subliminal) activity aluded to earlier, that's a bit short. I've watched the launch video, and it's really just, straight up to (just) past 100 km, straight back down, land on parachutes. I'm sure it'd be exciting, but I wouldn't plonk down thousands of dollars for this (I'd rather pay for a ride on a MiG-29 or something for that money, lasts longer and is much cooler).

  9. Crisp

    Colonel, you better have a look at this radar

    I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant...

  10. arctic_haze

    Skywalker?

    Luke or Anakin? If it was Luke, was it the young and optimistic one or the old grumpy Jedi Master?

  11. Cynic_999

    This is the modified design

    The original had two large spherical fuel tanks at the base.

    1. gregthecanuck
      Trollface

      Re: This is the modified design

      Congratulations... you win LOL of the day!

  12. VAX Wizard

    Measurement Units

    So, how many pounds of thrust is one Tesla?

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