Jeff Bezos’ Dick Rocket is available as a model for $ 70
The model rocket manufacturer Estes is launching the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket in 1:66 scale. The web community mocks because on the scale it becomes evident that the missile looks like a penis.
The social media management of Estes Rockets no longer complies with the deletion. The comment column is full under the promotional video for the full-scale replica of the New Shepard rocket from Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin. However, only for a short time. Then the posts are deleted again. What’s going on there?
Well, it’s very simple. The model of the rocket is obviously in the shape of a penis – some have already wondered whether it could be the genitals of the corporate leader. Since then, the Estes model has been making the rounds under the name “Jeff Bezos Dick Rocket”.
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A serious matter
At the heart of the matter, it is an official cooperation between the Bezos Foundation “Club for the Future” and the model maker Estes. The New Shepard model can already be pre-ordered. The delivery quantity is even limited to five per order. Apparently, Estes is expecting huge demand.
For around 70 US dollars, customers with delivery date November 2021 – i.e. in good time before Christmas – receive a faithful replica of the New Shepard with the large capsule structure on top and the slim sides down to the wide fins on the bottom. If you want, you can also purchase a launch pad and electrically ignited C6-class engines and actually let the rocket rise to a height of over 100 meters. Let’s say that there is the Kármán line – at least on a scale of 1: 1000.
The elephant in the room. (Image: Estes Rockets)
Each rocket will be accompanied by a postcard from Bezos’ organization, the “Club for the Future”. People should use it to describe their own vision of the future and send in the postcards. They will then be taken on board a Blue Origin flight and sent back to the sender with the imprint “Flown to Space”, that is, “Been in space”, promises Estes.
The penis shape has a valid reason
Even at the start of the real New Shepard there had been mockery about the shape of the rocket. After all, SpaceX shows that a rocket does not have to look like a male genital even with a person capsule on.
But this is due to the different uses of the two rockets and their capsules. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 carries the Crew Dragon capsule. It rises to the sides no more than the diameter of the rocket itself. With the capsule on it, the Falcon 9 still looks more like an arrow or a pen. SpaceX chose this shape in order to experience as little air resistance as possible. This allows the missile to fly higher than one with a wider capsule.
This is important for SpaceX because the Dragon crew has to fly to the ISS, the international space station. It is not just a transport medium, but a transport capsule with a specific goal, a commercial vehicle, so to speak.
This is very different with the New Shepard. Its capsule is designed to fly people as comfortably as possible over the border to space, then pause there for a short time and then start landing in a controlled manner. For reasons of comfort, the capsule is bigger and wider than the Crew Dragon. And because it doesn’t have to fly that high, drag isn’t that big a factor. In addition, the rocket is shorter than the Falcon 9 for the same reason, which changes the proportions and provides nourishment for the penis comparison.
So we see that it all makes sense. But in the 1:66 model, the association is simply too strong not to smile at least a little.
