Breaking News: Blue Origin Environmental Impact statement
June 25th, 2006Last year Amazon zillionaire Jeff Bezos gave an interview to the Van Horn Advocate in which he dislosed that his company Blue Origin would conduct private sub-orbital flights from the nearby Corn ranch. A Seattle paper discovered some details on the company’s new main facility in Kent, Washington. Since then, there hasn’t been much in the way of information on the Bezos space system.
Thanks the miracle of Google Alerts, we have new information in the form of an FAA Draft Enviromental Assessment for the Blue Origin West Texas Commerical Launch Site.
The vehicle is a DC-X type vertical takeoff and landing craft. It’s good sized, around 120,000 pounds, comparable to a late-model Boeing 737.
The most amazing thing is that there is no pilot, the vehicle will “operate autonomously under the control of on-board computers”! This will be the first passenger rated unpiloted air vehicle in history. That alone is as big an accomplishment as flying up into space. Frankly, I’m very skeptical about this aspect of the Blue Origin system, but I’m eager for them to suceed. The more people into the space, the better!
Hat tips: HobbySpace.com and MSNBC Cosmic Log.
Update: Insightful commentary at Space Review.
