[Closed] Blue Origin New Shepard Launch

Finding it really difficult to give a single shit about it. Seems a lot like going up in a great big lift. Sure it’ll be exciting to be on

yeah, i'm watching. Hardware looks a bit less 'pro' than the spacex stuff! Feeling a bit bad for the 80 year old going up all those stairs

To boldly go where Al Shepard went 60 years ago.

Still... we spend our disposable income on push bikes, Jeff has got a bit more so he can spend it on space ships.

80 year old going up all those stairs

Yeah, Wally did well! No trips or stumbles. I was expecting a lift though.
Shame there isn't any heart rate details on screen.

I can't really see the motivation to watch a pissing competition between two perma-tanned megalomaniacal bell-ends with more money than sense.

At times like this I do wish that I lived in a world where Bond villains were real. Proper ones, with a death ray at their disposal to put to some good use.

Oh... hang on a minute... those two are the actual bond villains, aren't they? It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they were actually locked in a battle to develop the first death ray

Mission Control looks like the offices of Wernham Hogg - I want to see a massive room full of techy folk!

Seems a lot like going up in a great big lift. knob

FTFY. I know rockets are pretty phallic anyway, but he might as well paint the crew module purple.

I can’t really see the motivation to watch a pissing competition between two perma-tanned megalomaniacal bell-ends with more money than sense.

I'm watching it as if i was able to watch the beginnings of a new transport system that eventually might have benefits for not just the rich but for those who want to go on holiday but don't fancy a 12hr flight to get to the other side of the planet 😉.

looks like my blockquote is the wrong way round 😪

 

the-muffin-man
Full Member

Mission Control looks like the offices of Wernham Hogg – I want to see a massive room full of techy folk!

Haha I was trying to work out what it reminded me of, that's bang on

Like retrorick, I don't give a stuff who's in it, or who's paying for it.
I'm watching it because space tech is cool, and it's easy now with the internet.

I’m watching it because space tech is cool, and it’s easy now with the internet.

I've got a 2 year old whose favourite phrase at the moment is "need space rocket" so just been watching Apollo and shuttle launches (with some Arianne thrown in too), finishing with the Falcon Heavy test flight. This just feels very 'meh' in comparison (imo)

Finding it really difficult to give a single shit about it

This sums up my feelings entirely, and all that preening bollocks about transportation systems or new frontiers either. Just pay your taxes and **** off

Decent windows! Could use some stickers. That was a first - ‘you wanna go? Sign up here’

Bezos is a **** tho.

[clicks on live feed]

Hardware looks a bit less ‘pro’ than the spacex stuff

Looks all a bit 'Button Moon' to me.

The companies might avoid paying taxes? but the millions of people who work for those companies pay it on their behalf 🤔😂😉

Shame there isn't any on board cameras.

retrorick
Full Member

Shame there isn’t any on board cameras.

There is/was one, was on screen for about 10 seconds

Just a side show to the real deal.

Stretching the definition of "crew" here

Landing rocket boosters vertically is still as cool as ****! 🙂

I wonder what the smell is like in the pod?

I wonder what the smell is like in the pod?

Money.

And probably a little bit of wee.

the-muffin-man
Full Member

Landing rocket boosters vertically is still as cool as ****! 🙂

Yeah that was impressive. I was wondering if the little booster on the crew capsule was actually going to fire, it got so close to the ground.

...smells like a care-home! 🙂

It's all a bit 60's Sci-Fi, which I guess is complimentary to the visionaries of the time. Or is this just life reflecting art?

If they are not getting into orbit, couldn't' you achieve the same thing with a weather balloon type arrangement? It's the speed, not the height, that's the difficult thing right?

Good job they don't need to get out quickly......

the beginnings of a new transport system

What, rockets? Unless you're living in a 1950s sci-fi film, rockets are not the transport system of the future.

Oh… hang on a minute… those two are the actual bond villains, aren’t they?

If you're main definition criteria for a Bond villain is desire for global domination, and why wouldn't it be, then yep.

Just pay your taxes and **** off

Indeed.

24 miles for a weather balloon according to Google, so quite a bit short of the mark

the beginnings of a new transport system

What, rockets? Unless you’re living in a 1950s sci-fi film, rockets are not the transport system of the future.

Commercial transport rather than that of Government agencies which haven't made strides in that direction.

I suppose Governments do launch commercial satellites but not people for holidays 😂

Still… we spend our disposable income on push bikes, Jeff has got a bit more so he can spend it on space ships.

Personally I am looking forward to the launch of the James Webb later this year - my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are both pretty senior team members on the project 🙂

Much more interesting than watching Lex Luthor Jeff Bozos go for a quick play (and will benefit science massively, being able to see to all the way to the Big Bang)!

Rich men, dodge taxes, leaving millions in poverty and hardship, and spend the money they stole, on cock substitutes.

Nope, not getting it.

If it's not multiple orbits around the earth, drifting around in zero gravity and eating 'space ice cream' it's not really a space flight.

Laika the stray dog got a more interesting ride than the world's richest man and that was 64 years ago. Ok, Bezos might not have been after quite the same ending as poor old Laika but even so.

And this is not the beginning of a new transport system.....as millions of us ably demonstrated in the last 15 months, the answer to hours spent travelling the globe for business meetings is not to bloody travel in the first place and use this new fangled internet shenanigans.

10 mins from start to finish in a penis shaped rocket...if only I could figure out if there's a joke in there somewhere...

What's the carbon footprint for this ego trip, I wonder?

What’s the carbon footprint for this ego trip, I wonder?

Probably about 3% of all the wasted cardboard his little online shop generates each day.

exactly, “man spends disposable income on hobby” – not exactly shocking or unusual. Pure jealousy from the naysayers. 🤣

I assume most of us spend our disposable income on our hobbies after we've paid our taxes though.

It's a little like watching an Austin Powers movie. Worlds best Dr Evil cosplay goes to space in massive penis.
He could be Batman, Iron Man or International Rescue but he wants to be Dr Evil. Seems like an awful wasted opportunity.

Just watched a bit of the video - wt actual f is that thing.

Jeff to designer - 'we need something cutting edge and cool. Beardy Branson has a nifty looking launch plane thing, Musk's ships look like they've actually been designed this century so what can you do?'

Designer - 'just pass me that Ann Summers catalogue - the one from the late 70's - bound to be some inspiration in there...'

Still… we spend our disposable income on push bikes, Jeff has got a bit more so he can spend it on space ships.

exactly, “man spends disposable income on hobby” – not exactly shocking or unusual.

Shall we all stop paying tax then, so we can spend more money on shiney blingy bits for our push bikes?

Let's see what happens if we all start doing what Jeff does. Well... actually, let's not. We all know exactly what will happen

It reminded me of this.......

Shall we all stop paying tax then, so we can spend more money on shiney blingy bits for our push bikes?

As above, none of us will volunteer to pay more tax. Governments need to sort out the global tax system if they want to tax global businesses.

Most of us would spend some of our money on toys if we were billionaires. At least this is helping turn space travel into something private businesses can do instead of governments who only did it as a race against another government.

I also wonder how the first bicycle was viewed by the local poor peasants. I can imagine some heavy wooden contraption propelled by foot like a grownups balance bike, operated by the rich landowner. It would not have gone very far on the dirt track and everyone would have thought what a daft pointless expensive waste of materials.

Most of us would spend some of our money on toys if we were billionaires.

I've seen figures suggesting his net worth is around 200 billion and he's spent about a billion on the space program. So 0.5% of his net worth. In percentage terms that's about what my best bike is worth. So, I'd extrapolate to say that pro-rata, many folk on here have spent a bigger proportion of their net worth on toys than Bezos has on his space willy.

Just been watching it and one of them is called "Wally Funk" - what a name.

I'm absolutely fine with the billionaire space program thing, they've achieved things that national programs almost certainly wouldn't have and that's good for human progress overall.

But it does basically highlight how ridiculously broken our system is. It's not "Bezos spends a load of his money on a spaceship", it's "Bezos can spend all this money on spaceships and not even notice, meanwhile his employees are pissing into bottles, and the tax structures he uses make entire countries poorer". It's legal, but legal is no gauge of morality or rightness.

Bezos is at a point where he could pay a good living wage, give his employees good working conditions, pay the tax he should be, and still afford a spaceship.

Frankly I don't give a stuff what Bezos spends his money on.

What annoys me about this is all the publicity for something that the Soviet Union first did, and much better, in 1961.

It's not exactly a step forward in anything

I don't think the Soviet Union, or NASA, have ever re-used any part of their rockets, so a huge step forward.

I don’t think the Soviet Union, or NASA, have ever re-used any part of their rockets

The space shuttle boosters were recovered and re used plus the main shuttle engines were re used too along with the rest of the shuttle (how much of them actually got re-used and not replaced during prep for the next flight though I don’t know.)

As above, none of us will volunteer to pay more tax

Wrong. I would and so would many others, Indeed we elected a scots government on a tax raising platform

I don’t think the Soviet Union, or NASA, have ever re-used any part of their rockets, so a huge step forward

Ok - it was more the "going to space" part of it. The tech is obviously better but it's 60 years later and we've had an material science and IT revolutions during that period. But c'mon, 10 minutes up and down - meh. People are regularly shuttled to the ISS with no fuss.

I'll be impressed if someone gets back to the moon. I'll be really impressed if man gets to Mars.

One of the things that really annoys is the illiteracy about space science. It seems most journos seem to jump between Bezos dipping his toe, to moon shots, to Mars, to interstellar travel with seemingly no understanding of scale or challenge

Here's Jeff & crew before the flight.....

L-R Wally Funk, Dutch kid, No 2, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos

It’s a little like watching an Austin Powers movie. Worlds best Dr Evil cosplay goes to space in massive penis.

Beautifully summed up.

But c’mon, 10 minutes up and down – meh

Pretty similar to the mercury shots? spam in a can!

It’s not exactly a step forward in anything

I think quite a few of us would pay to watch him and Branson fired into the sun. That would definitely be a step forward

Anyway, hasn’t what he’s done today was done earlier today just this…?

Pretty similar to the mercury shots?

Erm……. No. Actually getting into orbit, staying there for more than a day, as only a prelude to more advanced missions is a totally different kettle of fish.

Pretty similar to the mercury shots?

Well done Jeff, managed to replicate what happened over 50 years ago...In fact going back a bit further, replicating the achievement of an animal that licks it's own arse.

Slow hand for Jeff please....

Oh… hang on a minute… those two are the actual bond villains

Coincidentally, it was Richard Branson who had a cameo role in Casino Royal.

markwsf

the first US space missions were cobbled together after the USSR put Gagarin in orbit. the basically put a man in a capsule on top of a ICBM which was a development of the german V2 and fired them into a sub orbital flight with very few controls and no real control over the flight and they even had no windows hence the astronauts referred to themselves as "spam in a can". Very similar to Bezos flight.

Later flights reached orbit but the first US flights did not

It all looked a bit low rent compared to SpaceX.

TJ

The very first Mercury flights yes - but they quickly developed, and the first Mercury’s were just a small stepping stone to actual orbital flight and then to Gemini, Apollo etc.

...they even had no windows hence the astronauts referred to themselves as “spam in a can”. Very similar to Bezos flight.

Alan Shepard also spent the flight bathing in his own piss. Not because he was in to this new fangled urine therapy that is taking Facebook et al by storm (seriously) but because he needed to go and they hadn't plumbed in any kind of urine collection device. I bet Bezos didn't recreate the joys of early space flight quite that accurately 🙂

Bezos rocket, liquid fuelled by byhydrogen and oxygen, waste product = water. Branson rocket, solid fuel (rubber) burnt in nitrous oxide, waste product, dirty stinking black carbon injected directly into the upper atmosphere where it can do most harm. Virgin Galactic can fk off with it's vanity tourist bullshit. Dead end technology adding even more shite to the air to give rich parasites something else to waste their ridiculous wealth on.

tjagain
Full Member

wrong. I would and so would many others, Indeed we elected a scots government on a tax raising platform
Posted 16 hours ago

Fill your boots then. Voluntary payments to govt are here.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/voluntary-payments-donations-to-government

Not very busy by all accounts.

The Guardian investigates the shape of New Shepard: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/20/jeff-bezos-rocket-design-an-inquiry

"New Shepard consists of a mushroom-like crew capsule that flares out over a long shaft... The rounded top appears more bulbous than that of many other rockets"

Or see what JK Rowlings had to say about taxation?

Or see what JK Rowlings had to say about taxation?

he needed to go and they hadn’t plumbed in any kind of urine collection device.

Not sure if this is an urban myth but I've heard the tale that when Nasa did incorporate such a device the sizing range was something like Large, Extra Large, XXL, XXXL rather than starting at small (or extra small!)

certainly doesn’t pay no tax

Except years like 2007, when he paid no tax.
Even better, in 2011 he paid no tax and even got $4k in payments from taxpayers for his children. He pays about 1% of his true increase in assets in tax, because of the way he his able to structure his income.

He also located amazon in a low tax state, tried to run independents out of business by selling from places that had no sales tax and extracts massive payments and tax breaks from anyplace dumb enough time think that an amazon campus will bring wealth and jobs.

in 2011 he paid no tax and even got $4k in payments from taxpayers for his children.

He pays about 1% of his true increase in assets in tax, because of the way he his able to structure his income.

back in 2011 they probably still had billions in turnover but it seems he didn’t personally derive any income from it. If you’ve got loads in the bank you can probably afford to skip a year if your company has a lean one 🤣

Not sure if you are a Bezos fan boy or just genuinely don't understand how it works. First he chooses not to pay dividends on Amazon stock. Good for big investors, bad for small. So no tax. Second gets about 80k in salary, which seems a lot but is easy to get rid of when you can write off interest (on a mortgage too) and investment 'losses' 3 rd instead if selling off stock to fund your lifestyle, which you'd pay capital gains tax on, and dilute your ownership interest, you use it to secure loans. You live off the loan, write off the interest. Hence you accumulate wealth but have no income.

If you are referring to the charitable foundation he started, it's not clear that it does anything, other than provide him convenient cover.

And yes, I think Bezos knows exactly what is going on with his taxes. He is a micromanager, like a lot of rich sociopaths.
You can believe what you like about his taxes but like most he pays basically nothing in any kind of tax, not just income tax.

a pissing competition between two perma-tanned megalomaniacal bell-ends with more money than sense

So very much like a lot of threads on here. Except perhaps for the perma-tan part.