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.
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The Federal Aviation Administration published restricted airspace around Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site for a three-day period starting 2018-12-18.
Blue Origin's New Shepard mission (NS-10) is targeting liftoff on January 23, 2019, at 8:50 am CST / 14:50 UTC.
The next New Shepard flight, designated NS-10, was scheduled for 2018-12-18 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern from Blue Origin’s West Texas test site.
Three payloads that flew on Virgin Galactic’s 2018-12-13 SpaceShipTwo flight—a vibration isolation platform from Controlled Dynamics Inc., a dust-particle behavior experiment from the University of Central Florida, and a biological fluorescent imaging instrument from the University of Florida—are also flying on Blue Origin’s NS-10 mission.
Blue Origin plans to conduct the next test flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle no earlier than 2018-12-21.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard exceeded 100 km on several test flights, including a 2018-07-18 flight where the vehicle’s crew capsule reached a peak altitude of about 119 km using its abort motor shortly after separation from the propulsion module.
Blue Origin had previously planned to introduce its New Glenn orbital vehicle in 2020 but is now likely to enter service in 2021.
United Launch Alliance selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine for Vulcan’s first stage in a 2018-09-27 release.
Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman did not expect to conduct first launches of their LSA-funded rockets until 2021.
On 2018-10-10, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center allocated up to $500,000,000 to Blue Origin for the two-stage version of the reusable New Glenn rocket.
The U.S. Air Force awarded contracts to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and United Launch Alliance to further develop their launch vehicles so they can meet national security requirements that include flying to nine different orbits.
Space Florida will own and operate an 850,000-square-foot building where Blue Origin will manufacture the New Glenn launch vehicle.
The Air Force awarded Blue Origin $500,000,000 in LSA funding to develop the New Glenn rocket.
Blue Origin targets reducing launch prices through reusability to expand demand beyond traditional satellites to other payload types.
The U.S. Air Force awarded three contracts collectively worth about $2,000,000,000 to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, and United Launch Alliance to develop launch system prototypes.
The Air Force has committed through 2024 a total of $500,000,000 in OTA funds for Blue Origin.
The U.S. Air Force selected Blue Origin for a Launch Services Agreement on 2018-10-10.
Blue Origin planned to produce an initial set of BE-4 engines at its headquarters in Kent, Washington.
United Launch Alliance selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine for the first stage of its Vulcan rocket on 2018-09-27.
Blue Origin announced plans in June 2017 to construct a factory in Huntsville, Alabama to assemble later sets of BE-4 engines.