$28 Million US For Three Minutes Of Weightlessness

 

     The FT of London had a story that caught my eye this morning. It concerned Jeff Bezos and his upcoming July 15 ride into suborbital space in a Blue Origin space capsule. An unnamed bidder is going to pay $28 million US to ride in one of the four seats in the capsule. (The money is going to be donated to a foundation that promotes Stem Education.) Jeff and his brother will ride in the capsule as well as an unnamed 4th passenger.

     Elena is a master of asking brilliant, yet simple questions. Her first question about passengers to space is as follows:

"Are Jeff Bezos or Sir Richard Branson in danger of serious injury or death if something goes wrong in one of these space flights?"

    I pointed out to her that Sir Richard has virtually no risk when he takes his flight on the spaceplane. If the rocket motor fails to ignite after the spaceplane is dropped from the carrier plane, he can glide back to the spaceport and land. Jeff Bezos will be sitting on top of a flying bomb for the first minute or two of the flight. If something goes wrong at that early point in the flight, the rocket will crash back on the pad. We will witness a fiery explosion. NASA demands an abort system in case of a problem like this. The testing process is rigorous. Will it work if there is a real disaster? No one can say for sure.

     Elena's second question is as follows:

"Are Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos using the most- advanced technology in these spacecraft?"

   I answered "no." Sir Richard Branson is using rocket plane technology that has been around since the 1940's. Jeff Bezos is using space capsule technology that has been around since the late 1950's. I told her that Space-X is the company always at the leading edge of technology.