Nice Landing, Ladies

[Judge]

Something to smile about.

 

[Shamar]

Something to smile about.

Not to denigrate their going, but this was nothing more than a publicity stunt. They were not "crew," they were passengers. They operated no controls, they performed no experiments. All they did was sit in chairs, float around a few minutes, then get back in their chairs. This applies to most of these Blue Origin flights. There have been only a few where experiments were conducted and actual science was accomplished. For balance, this also applies to the Virgin Galactic space flights. And this was not the first all female crew. This was accomplished in the 1960s by the Soviet Union, only they actually operated their capsule.

If I were invited on one of these flights, I would turn it down. There is no point other than to go up and come back down. I would probably find it boring.

 

[Judge]

Not to denigrate their going, but this was nothing more than a publicity stunt. They were not "crew," they were passengers. They operated no controls, they performed no experiments.

Duh....everyone pretty much knew that before they went up. However you're forgetting the obvious.

Manned spaceflight of any kind is not routine- nor "safe". And it won't be within your or my lifetime. Even in such a controlled situation as mere passengers it reflects a calculated risk many people would never consider taking.

An obvious publicity stunt of Jeff Bezos attempting to appear to remain relevant in a competitive environment that probably no longer involves Boeing. Though I don't see him making any headway in such a fight, but if he wants to use his capital like this, he can afford it.

However none of that changes that what the passengers did took some courage.

 

[Shamar]

True,

Duh....everyone pretty much knew that before they went up. However you're forgetting the obvious.

Manned spaceflight of any kind is not routine- nor "safe". And it won't be within your or my lifetime. Even in such a controlled situation as mere passengers it reflects a calculated risk many people would never consider taking.

An obvious publicity stunt of Jeff Bezos attempting to appear to remain relevant in a competitive environment that probably no longer involves Boeing. Though I don't see him making any headway in such a fight, but if he wants to use his capital like this, he can afford it.

However none of that changes that what the passengers did took some courage.

True, it did take some courage. New Shepherd has flow 20 unpersoned and 11 personed (to be politically correct) flights. Seems to me that is getting into the routine range, especially considering it barely gets into space and lasts just over 10 minutes, launch to landing. I don't think anybody considers it space flight. NASA doesn't, and no longer awards astronaut wings for these types of flights. I still think of it as nothing more than a glorified amusement park ride.

I have been in zero G and higher G than they experienced many times. The difference was, I was flying the airplane when I did it.