IS BLUE ORIGIN PLANNING A PRANG?

[Commander]

In an email from Blue origin was the following statement...

We’re also finishing our mission planning for another flight of New Shepard, which will be our fourth flight with this vehicle. One of the fundamental tenets of Blue Origin is that the safest vehicle is one that is robust and well understood. Each successive mission affords us the opportunity to learn and improve our vehicles and their modeling. We have stepwise expanded our flight envelope on the booster and crew capsule on every mission. On our most recent flight, we performed maneuvers on the crew capsule to help characterize its aerodynamics and reduce our model uncertainties. On this next mission, we’ll execute additional maneuvers on both the crew capsule and the booster to increase our vehicle characterization and modeling accuracy.

On this upcoming mission we also plan to stress the crew capsule by landing with an intentionally failed parachute, demonstrating our ability to safely handle that failure scenario. It promises to be an exciting demonstration. We’ll be sharing more with you about the upcoming mission as we have it.

Gradatim Ferociter!

Jeff Bezos

I'm wondering if GH has joined the Blue Origin team and talked them into pranging the New Shepard. Well at least it's not a power prang.... yet?

I guess they feel that at a minimum 4 flights for a capsule is a pretty good return, although I'm not certain that this crew capsule was used on all of the previous flights.

[Ghrocketman]

I LIKE Prangs when they do not involve ANY of MY rockets or aircraft.
As long as nobody gets hurt, I honestly find them hilarious...that's why I really like watching PMC's fly. In my youth, I think the prang-rate for the PMC's I saw 'fly' was close to 90%...loved the Broom-'n-Trash Bag 'recovery' method. I'm shocked NAR still allows PMC's with their focus on safety above everything including fun.
The BEST Prangs are POWR-PRANGS !
I once launched an old beat-up Estes Hercules with a B8-5 to C6-3 to ensure it's demise with an intentional Powr-Prang. For those that don't know, regular engines WILL ignite upper-stage engines from the ejection charge, especially if one incorporates the "Centuri pass-port venting" system. The Estes Hercules was positioned perfectly vertical toward the GROUND when the upper stage C6-3 ignited.
This thing impacted the ground during the propellant burn with extreme velocity only 100' from the launch pad. To say it was MANGLED beyond belief is an understatement. I think that flight was right around 1995 when I graduated from college.