Insightful and clever. Not only is it an intrinsically awesome thing to do for curiosity/posterity, but this way Blue Origin gets a look at real flight test data from real F-1s.<p>The F-1 was an achievement. The turbopumps are of particular note.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketdyne_F-1" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketdyne_F-1</a>
Last Saturday I met and spent a little time with one of the guys that rode one of these engines. Amazing. That's two I've met now - Charlie Duke (Apollo 16) and Al Worden (Apollo 15).<p>They were charming men, and while it's true that they were "on duty" and hence it was their job to be nice to us, they also came across as rather straight-talking individuals. I don't think it was an act.<p>Amazing men, amazing technology, amazing times.<p>Inspiring.
At first I was thinking this was a headline from that Refrigerator Magnet App posted the other day (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5395348" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5395348</a>).<p>edit: The original headline said "Jeff Bezos Recovers F-1 Engines from the Atlantic Ocean"
For anyone wanting to get up close and personal to an F-1 Engine visit the Infinity Museum at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. They sit outside right at the entrance. It is truly a remarkable sight especially when you sit inside of the cone. <a href="http://www.visitinfinity.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.visitinfinity.com/</a>
I'm not an expert on the law of the sea, but it would seem that after NASA abandoned these engines in the ocean 50 years ago, they would belong now to whoever could salvage them.
OK, I am reminded of Steve Yegge's famous posts about Bezos (no. 7 - he really does not give a shit about your day).<p>The Bezos I heard in this post is a very different beast from the one I heard in Yegge's writings. Maybe time at sea really does change a man, or more likely, there are many different sides to each of us.<p>Either way, I love the way the new rich are making something interesting happen.
OK, I'll be the nay-sayer in this thread.<p>I love space and tech. Love it. We go to JPL every chance we get. My brother in law is a PhD Physicist who works there. Great stuff.<p>Now, that said, I have to wonder how much time, effort, money and energy went into recovering junk from the ocean.<p>And, I have to wonder what other project could have been undertaken that would have produced far greater benefits for society than being able to look at a mangled rocket engine at the Smithsonian.<p>I get it. Guy with a ton of money playing with expensive toys. No problem. We all do that to some extent or another with our disposable income. The problem here, if there is one, is I don't really see much value from recovering this junk. I'd love to know how much the entire adventure (inception to engine-in-museum) will cost. It's probably an obscene amount of money that would have done far greater good elsewhere.<p><moron negative guy mode OFF>