Blue Origin's commercial flight: How risky is space tourism? |
Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk represent the youngest and oldest
to travel to space. 18-year old Oliver Daemen is the first paid
tourist. 82-year old Wally Funk is an aviator who missed the bus
over NASA's gender bias since the 60's. Apart from Jeff Bezos,
the space team also includes his brother Mark. "Welcome to the
crew, Oliver! We’re grateful to have you as our first customer to
mark the beginning of commercial operations," Blue Origin
tweeted. Experts differ on the risk factor involved in such
commercial space flights.
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NEW DELHI, July 19: Space company Blue Origin will fly its 16th New Shepard
flight to space with a capsule in its first crewed space trip on July 20 at
8 am CDT (6:30 pm IST), and that will be the first-ever commercial flight into space.
The flight will carry its billionaire founder Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame. Riding
along with Bezos will be Mercury aviator Wally Funk, whom he personally invited
to join the crew, along with his brother Mark. The 82-year old woman aviator,
who was refused a chance by NASA all along, will become the oldest astronaut.
Bezos' brother, a firefighter, is Mark Bezos. A Dutch teenager, Oliver Daemen,
will be the first paid space tourist and the youngest to go to space. He comes
in place of the winner of the anonymous charity auction bidding $ 28 m but opted
for a future flight.
Space flight is inherently a risky operation. And how risky is Blue Origin
space flight? Unlike Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson, whose spaceplane had
two pilots and he did not cross the Karman line beyond the outer atmosphere,
Blue Origin is set to enter space pilotless and will be in an autonomous
mode.
After the 1986 Challenger disaster it is often calculated using mathematical
models what is the risk involved in space flights. It is said space vehicles
can expect a failure rate of 1 in every 120 launches. To be lenient to Blue
Origins, vehicles having acquired quite a lot of experience in flying, the risk
is set 1 in 1,000 flights. For Blue Origin it is the 16th with one minor failure.
Two issues come under focus. One set of failures involve the rocket. In the
case of New Shepard, it is not entering the orbit, where the risk is, and will
use a simple single engine called Blake Putney. It creates a thrust when it
takes off far less than NASA's Space Shuttle boosters. To be on the safe side,
in the Blue Origin crew capsule sits far from its engine and is able to separate
and escape in case of a rocket failure, of any kind.
On descent level, if the weather is not favouravle and the winds are blowing
hard, it can tilt the capsule and anything can happen. Besides, the descent
is inherent with a remote chance of a parachute not opening up and a calm landing
becoming difficult, prematurely dropping faster in the Bay or the Atlantic.
The New Shepard rocket and capsule will launch from Launch Site One, a remote
area in the west Texas desert that will be closed to all spectators, even along
nearby sections of State Highway 54, Blue Origin said.
Bezos of Amazon founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the hopes of eventually bringing
rich space tourists to suborbital space.
Blue Origin bests Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic on many counts. Branson's
space company, founded in 2004, just launched its flight on July 11. It was
well piloted and did not have to cross the Karman line. Besides, Blue Origin
reuses its New Shepard.
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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What caused Air India Boeing 787 crash? Some questions, some answers | |
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
- The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
- The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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ARCHIVES
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
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Neighbours Calling
Bhutan
Nepal
Malaysia
Dubai
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Gujarat
Puducherry
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