Great flight and amazing windows on the Blue Origin capsule....what a view they would have.
The whole crew / Jeff Bezos wearing 3861 Speedmasters to be engraved and presented back to them after the flight with the Blue Origin Feather, their name and the flight number.

So the Omega 3861 has crossed the Karman line and joins the rest of the family....

Replay - New Shepard First Human Flight - YouTube
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Yeah I’m sorry, I know there are a lot of space exploration enthusiasts here so I don’t expect this to go down with universal popularity, but 60 years ago the first humans left the earth and flew in what we call space. They were scientists and explorers, and they went because human beings are curious.

Today four more people went into space. They went not because they were scientists and explorers (although arguably one of them, Wally Funk, is), but because they were vain and wealthy (again, not Funk).

This perfectly sums up human progress over the past 60 years. This is where we have come to as a species.

 

There is hopefully always something valuable learned by every major endeavor, even if the motivation or intent is what we deem less than admirable.

 

Well the body of the rocket did come back to be re-used and their odds of survival are much better than the 66-1 on the old shuttle... and most of us prefer the cost and comfort (and safety) to ride in a 747 rather than an X-15... so there is aviation / Aerospace progress and JB is working towards supporting Moon and Mars missions....so some would call it progress. It is also much cheaper now with commercial involvement. I guess the odd ego trip might be allowed..

 

Congratulations Blue Origin Team.
This is another step to realizing a more plebeian Space Experience.
Great for You Jeff, and Wally Dreams fulfilled Today.
You’ve closed the Mercury Circle Today.

 

I watched this today with the same nervous anticipation that I did as a kid when they televised each and every space launch on national tv. They used to drag the old AV tv's into our class and we would sit quietly and watch the launches. I also remember like it was yesterday, the challenger crash. The entire school was in the gymnasium, watching when it exploded... you could hear a pin drop in the room with hundreds of children watching in horror. I remember realizing what a monumental tragedy it was even at a young age.
Now, launches happen without barely a mention! I still, to this day anxiously await any manned launches and follow them online. still very exciting to me.

I'm sure the end game is to perpetuate Bezos' wealth but in reading interviews, the plan was to pair with NASA for the development of concepts and technologies to support future human spaceflight operations and it seems JB is still following this plan.
I know if i had his opportunity, I would love to do the same. If its for personal gain, so be it but the 3 billionaires are putting a lot of money into the space programs which lightens the burdens on NASA and adds funding and experience to further development.
very few people do anything if not for personal gain, be it monetary or fame or in the pursuit of knowledge.
i think its cool and I watch all of this closely and always will hope for the best for anyone clearing the path to space exploration.
(and if they all take a speedmaster with them, like Bezos did, that is even cooler)

 

I recognise that the use of money is not necessarily binary, but I also can’t help thinking that there are many projects that would have yielded far more benefit for humanity than this.

 

Indeed...

 

I guess Bill Gates and Warren Buffett could have gone to space instead of whatever they’re frittering their money away on.

 

Unbelievable. The whole team indeed wore the 3861. I mean the Karman Speedy 3861.

 

The same arguments were made 60 years ago during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, "we have so many problems on earth, we should spend the money here". The NASA program cost about $500 billion in current dollars between 1960 and 1973. The USA has spent over $20 trillion since LBJs Great Society and we know the results (not good). Diverting the NASA $500 billion for more 'help' would have made ZERO difference.

Bezos made his money through a brilliant business model, strategy and execution, now employing over a million people, and many investors did very well (disclosure, I'm a long time shareholder). I trust Bezos to spend his fortune far more than the government taking much of it and wasting it to buy votes to keep themselves in office.

 

It’s early but it seems things are moving quicker with the public, private partnership and competition is going well. Look how long the US was paying Russia for rides into space. One could make the argument the whole space thing is a waste and the money could be better spent on the ground but then we would find something else to bitch about. Government is not all bad it just gets too bloated and full of waste then you need over sight for over eight for those doing the oversight. Private companies aren’t doing this with just ego in mind, tourism, exploration and possible “space mining”. These are all things being discussed. Maybe it’s a waste and the money could be better spent but it is cool to see, watch and read about. I just wish they would wear a speedy date in space so I get get over my mundane speedy Hangup

 

Mixed emotions on this one, for sure.

I do miss Armstrong's, Collins' and Aldrin's humility and reticence (although Buzz is not afraid of the limelight. Still, he's a bad ass former Marine, test pilot, brilliant engineer and of course, astronaut so deserves all the acclaim.)

Some of the magic was missing. Still, godspeed Blue Origin on all your future flights and welcome back to earth, crew. Lord knows it's nice to be looking up at space again, even if it's, gulp, Bezos...

(That f****** hat! Glad Armstrong and Collins didn't have to see that....I know every a-hole is a critic.)

 

The four speedies 3861 in space. (Photo courtersy from Reuters Link)

 

I hear the carping and unfortunately the rig and Bezos look like something out of Austin Powers. Bezos did take huge risk to create an amazing company that most of us use daily. Elon Musk earned his fortune through hard work as well. Branson well…The ability of the US and western society to foster innovation and speed like this is something to be celebrated. Going forward, this is a great model for private/government cooperation. We need to get off this planet. I’d rather have this than more flags and footstep expensive government programs.

 

Apologies to any Aerospace Engineers out there, but I just can't get over how modest the advances in that field have been compared to other areas of human endeavor over the past 60 years. Just think about how far biotechnology, biomedical technology, and computer/semiconductor technology have come since the 1970s. Our current technologies (many in mass market consumer products) would seem like magic to scientists and engineers from that time. A computer in your pocket, genetically modified ingredients in every purchase, genomic information through the mail. There have even been revolutionary advances in petroleum engineering (although they are perhaps not so welcome to our planet). Yes, there have marginal advances in airplane and spacecraft capabilities, but they seem incremental by comparison; improved versions of legacy technology leveraging advances from other fields. I just can't get worked up over two billionaires skimming the edge of the atmosphere. Gagarin and Shepard went substantially higher (and Gagarin orbited the earth) 60 years ago. 60 years!

 

No, arguably we need to save humanity on this planet. The planet doesn’t care. It will carry on whether we are here or not.

We certainly have no right to destroy it so that we and most other living species cannot survive on it, and then move on to do the same elsewhere.

Besides all that, what Bezos and Branson et al are doing contributes nothing to any quest to colonise other planets. It simply serves to further damage the Earth’s ability to sustain us.

 

It’s the reusable and reliable equipment, developed by private enterprise, albeit with government outsource cash. Early days still. Distractions…The end of the Cold War, the shuttle, the ISS.

 

I still believe that mankinds expansion into the cosmos will take the pressure off the planet. Perhaps develop a greater respect for it. Or we get tribalism, like “The Expanse”. We have no right to be behaving as we are, nor as Carlin pointed out, does Earth care if we survive. On that I agree.

 

Yeah, that's what I mean by incremental advances after 60 years. In almost every other field of science/engineering, the advances have been transformational.