Why does Jeff Bezos’s rocket look like that? An inquiry

theguardian.com

10 points·Engineering-MD··6 comments

It's shape is really not all that different from the Soyuz descent and reentry capsule [1]. The distinctive appearance comes from it having a slightly larger diameter than the suborbital booster and the lack of a fairing and LES. On Soyuz, the latter hides the shape of the spacecraft itself [2]

1 https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/element...

2 http://www.astronautix.com/s/soyuz7kt-ok.html

Well, how about that TV show from 1979?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bNjAabLjCc

If you squint you can see aspects of both Blue Origin and SpaceX's adventures in this short-lived TV show. I remember watching it as a kid.

I honestly thought that the phallic appearance was an intentional stylistic choice and not really driven by engineering concerns as such.

I still sorta do.

Even if it wasn't deliberate on viewing the first design sketch it or designing it the resemblance had to be noticed.

Yes, it seems like that. But you can use a different reason to justify things after the fact!

From Akin's Laws on Spacecraft Design: https://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.html

30. (von Tiesenhausen's Law of Engineering Design) If you want to have a maximum effect on the design of a new engineering system, learn to draw. Engineers always wind up designing the vehicle to look like the initial artist's concept.

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