Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 10 hours ago
A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launched Joey Hyde, Adonis Pouroulis, Hans Koenigsmann, Neal Milch, Jason Stansell and Michi Benthaus from West Texas.

Benthaus, an aerospace engineer, became the first wheelchair user ever to reach space.

Credit: Blue Origin
Transcript
00:00Thrust termination system is armed.
00:30Arrows from the front of the front of the front of the front of the front of the front of
00:33the front of the front.
00:38Starting role program.
00:44Thirty seconds into flight.
00:47Now you can note the speed and altitude graphics there on the bottom of your screen.
00:51Seven thousand feet and climbing.
00:53And the chart at the left is tracking the main milestones over the front of the front.
01:00Beginning throttle down for cue limiting.
01:10Engine response looks good.
01:12Engine response.
01:28All right, it looks like we've passed Max-Q.
01:31There you hear on the radio there, the Max-Q has passed.
01:34That's the point at which the aerodynamic pressures on the vehicle are at the max.
01:37Mach-1 vehicle is supersonic.
01:39All right.
01:40And you can just see the glow of the engine there.
01:43Engine back up to full throttle.
01:46The onboard camera looking down at West Texas.
01:49Chamber pressure looks good.
01:54Passing 70,000 feet.
02:05All right, we're approaching 100,000 feet here.
02:11The next milestone that we're looking here for is main engine cutoff, or MECO.
02:15And that's the moment at which our astronauts are going to start feeling the effects.
02:19Astronauts experiencing max ascent Gs.
02:23Of microgravity.
02:28Begin throttle down. Stand by MECO.
02:37MECO confirmed.
02:41There's the main engine cutoff.
02:42Stand by separation.
02:44And it's a very clear day in West Texas, which is why our long range cameras there on the ground
02:48on the left side of the screen, you're seeing the clear shot of the booster.
02:53There's separation.
02:54Separation confirmed.
02:56Amazing.
02:56And this is the point at which the astronauts are going to hear that call from their CAPCOM telling them
03:02they can start to unbuckle and enjoy those moments to float around the capsule.
03:07And I can't imagine what's going through MECO's head right now.
03:14Hey, guys.
03:18Emily, I love you.
03:20Grandpa's in space.
03:21Hey, guys.
03:22What are you doing?
03:23What are you doing?
03:25You're doing it.
03:27High five.
03:27High five.
03:28High five.
03:31They sound happy in there, which is really good.
03:34I'm so excited for them.
03:38We're at space.
03:41Oh, my God.
03:47Passing the Carmen line.
03:49And there they are.
03:50They've crossed into space.
03:54Now, both the booster and the capsule are both ascending now.
03:58The vehicles are separated.
04:00And now they're just both coasting up into their Apogee point.
04:03And they're going to reach Apogee about the same time.
04:05And then begin their journey back to Earth.
04:11You can hear the voices of the astronauts right now as they are floating around the capsule.
04:18Capsule has reached Apogee.
04:20Oh, my God.
04:23Oh, my God.
04:24Uh-oh.
04:28Four minutes, 15 seconds into flight.
04:39An amazing day to fly to space for these six astronauts.
04:43Booster descending past 340,000 feet.
04:45Now, the booster is more aerodynamically shaped than the capsule is.
04:49So it's going to win the race back to the ground.
04:51So the chart on the left side of the screen that you see there is tracking the booster.
04:56The chart on the right side is tracking the capsule's descent.
04:59And so that booster is going to first touch down just a couple minutes before the capsule does.
05:06And you hear there the one-minute warning came from Capcom.
05:11They're talking to the astronauts in the capsule, giving them that one-minute warning to return to their seats.
05:17Booster descending nominally.
05:20And one thing I love is that you can see this booster coming down to West Texas.
05:25Astronauts returning to seats.
05:27The astronauts returning to their seats.
05:28And the booster will actually land about two miles north from the launch pad.
05:40That's the onboard, we call it the tunnel down view of the booster as it's descending back to Earth.
05:56You'll notice the clouds moving from left to right there.
05:59The booster, as it's ascending, rolls a little bit.
06:02It sort of tosses the crew capsule up into space.
06:05It gives the capsule ability to spin and get lots of different views of Earth as it's floating.
06:11Confirmed booster forward fin deploy.
06:16As you heard, we have deployed the forward fins.
06:19And that is because we need these surfaces to help steer the vehicle back to the landing pad.
06:27Astronauts are experiencing max G's.
06:31All right.
06:31The astronauts are now back in their seats.
06:33They are also descending back to Earth as well.
06:53Coming up here soon, we'll have my favorite part.
06:56I'm biased because it's the engine, but we will get to see the engine reignite.
07:01Booster drag brakes deployed.
07:03Approach an engine restart.
07:04All right.
07:05There's the drag brakes, and you're going to see the velocity of the dropping of the end of the booster
07:09here really cut down.
07:10It's below 500 miles an hour now.
07:18That was the sound of zoom.
07:19And you can see the relay happening right there.
07:22Engine restart.
07:30Landing light deployed.
07:31Booster descent nominal.
07:40Booster touchdown.
07:42Booster touchdown.
07:42Welcome home, new Shepard booster.
07:44Booster.
07:44There it is.
07:45Every time I get to see these booster landings, this is a miracle of engineering.
07:50Starting booster auto-saving.
07:52It's a treat to be able to see it.
07:54If you ever get a chance to see it in Texas, it's incredible.
07:56Anomaly past 20,000 feet.
07:59It's incredible.
08:24It's incredible.
08:26So now we're going to look for the drogue deployment.
08:36There it is.
08:37Looks like we've got three good drogue.
08:39So these are the initial drogue parachutes that pull out the main parachutes.
08:47Just a few seconds later, there's three good main parachutes have been deployed.
08:55Capsule main parachute deployment confirmed.
08:58There we are.
09:01Three reefed parachutes.
09:02Always really, really good to see this.
09:06Amazing.
09:08So these astronauts have gone to space.
09:11They have unbuckled.
09:13They have enjoyed a few moments of floating around the capsule.
09:19And here they are, looking out the window, seeing Earth.
09:23Capsule descending nominally past 1,700 feet.
09:26That is a great shot.
09:28We are just under 1,500 feet from the capsule landing.
09:37Oh, my.
09:39Oh, my.
09:39Look at that.
09:43Yeah, I can see it.
09:44I can see it, yeah.
09:45There it is, yeah.
09:49Now the parachutes, they're essential for providing a gentle touchdown for the capsule.
09:54And it also has a retro-thrust system at the base of the capsule.
09:57It's enabled.
09:57Which is going to make the final touchdown even smoother for those astronauts.
10:05Under 1,000 feet here.
10:08That retro-thrust system fires just moments.
10:11Approaching retro-thrust fire.
10:12Moments before the touchdown to slow the capsule down to just a few miles an hour.
10:17It kicks up a tremendous cloud of dust there in the desert.
10:20But rest assured, the astronauts today will enjoy a nice, soft touchdown.
10:30Again, great work by our drone team in West Texas today.
10:47Our astronauts have landed, and they have touched down back in West Texas.
10:53Welcome home, crew of NS-37, the 37th mission to space for New Shepard.
10:59Status check.
11:00It's always great to see the easy touchdown for a new Shepard crew capsule.
11:04Now, at this point, our crew capsule recovery team is going to be driving out in a convoy to meet
11:09those astronauts.
11:10They're going to safe the capsule.
Comments

Recommended