Blue Origin, founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, is an American aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company. It develops reusable rocket engines, launch vehicles like New Shepard and New Glenn, in-space systems, and lunar landers such as Blue Moon. Blue Origin is also a NASA partner, collaborating on the Artemis program for lunar exploration and working towards a sustainable human presence on the Moon, with partners like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Draper. Key activities include space tourism, satellite deployment capabilities, and advancing technologies to lower space travel costs.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Blue Origin formally opened a 350,000-square-foot engine factory in Huntsville, Alabama on 2020-02-17.
Blue Origin plans for New Glenn launches to begin in late 2021, per a company fact sheet.
Blue Origin is currently building BE-4 engines at its headquarters in Kent, Washington.
Blue Origin is completing construction of Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to host New Glenn launches.
Blue Origin invested $200,000,000 in the Huntsville facility.
Blue Origin is investing over $200,000,000 in its Huntsville engine production facility.
Blue Origin opened a rocket engine production facility in Huntsville, Alabama on 2020-02-17.
Blue Origin expects it will take two to three years to reach the Huntsville factory’s full production rate of 42 engines per year.
Blue Origin is producing a series of test BE-4 engines and two flight-readiness BE-4 engines at its Kent facility.
Blue Origin plans to start building BE-4 engines in the Huntsville factory in the summer, beginning with a site certification engine.
Blue Origin plans to employ as many as 400 people at the Huntsville facility once it reaches full production.
Blue Origin unveiled the BE-7 engine in May 2019 as part of an updated design of the Blue Moon lunar lander.
The Air Force Research Laboratory and Blue Origin signed a 15-year cooperative research and development agreement on 2019-12-11 covering testing of Blue Origin’s BE-7 engine.
Blue Origin will perform tests of the BE-7 engine at a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory test site.
Financial terms of the CRADA were not disclosed and Blue Origin will fund capital improvements to a facility it will use for BE-7 engine tests.
Robert Bigelow stated willingness to partner with other companies, including Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezos’s ventures, to pursue a commercial lunar base using Bigelow Aerospace’s habitation expertise.
The October 2018 LSA contracts awarded $500,000,000 to Blue Origin, $967,000,000 to United Launch Alliance, and $762,000,000 to Northrop Grumman.
SpaceX is challenging the Air Force’s October 2018 decision to award Launch Service Agreements to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and United Launch Alliance.
Except for SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman are offering newly designed rockets that RAND projects will be ready by 2021.
Eleven companies won concept study and prototype development awards from NASA in May, including Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX, with a combined value of $45,500,000.