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 completed the NG-2 mission of the New Glenn launch vehicle in November 2025.
Orbital Reef is designed to support 10 astronauts and provide docking capability for Blue Origin’s New Glenn launcher and Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane.
Six passengers on Blue Origin’s NS-38 mission are Tim Drexler, Linda Edwards, Alain Fernandez, Alberto Gutiérrez, Jim Hendren, and Andrew Yaffe.
Blue Origin, led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, scheduled the NS-38 suborbital flight for January 22, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. US Central Time (January 22, 2026 at 11:30 p.m. Japan Time).
Blue Origin completed direct field acoustic testing (DFAT) on its Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander as a flight-qualification milestone.
Blue Origin’s missions have carried a total of 92 people to date prior to NS-38.
Blue Origin used a portable, high-intensity loudspeaker array for DFAT instead of traditional shaker-table methods for the Blue Moon MK1.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn targets heavy-lift launches with per-launch costs in the $300–$500 million range.
Phase 1 of Commercial LEO Destinations funded three partnerships through Space Act Agreements: Blue Origin/Sierra Space for Orbital Reef, Axiom Space for a modular station approach, and Voyager Space partnered with Airbus for Starlab.
Phase 1 incumbents Blue Origin/Sierra, Axiom, and Voyager/Airbus face competition from new entrants and must demonstrate technical maturity, financial viability, schedule realism, and the ability to attract non-NASA customers.
A New Glenn launch during 2027 could carry OneWeb satellites for Eutelsat under the existing Blue Origin contract.
Eutelsat maintains a contract with Blue Origin for a flight on the New Glenn rocket that was signed in 2017.
In December 2025, NASA awarded Blue Origin a delivery task order for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER).
Blue Moon MK1 is part of Blue Origin’s lunar program focused on developing transport and support capabilities for missions on the lunar surface.
Blue Origin licenses Nimbus Power Systems’ fuel cell technology for its Blue Moon Lunar Lander program and other space applications.
Blue Origin flew its New Glenn rocket to orbit and sent spacecraft on their way to Mars.
Blue Origin licenses Nimbus Power Systems' fuel cell technology for its Blue Moon Lunar Lander program and other space applications.
On January 13, 2026, Blue Origin announced the delivery of the Sample Delivery Carousel, developed by Honeybee Robotics Exploration Systems, to NASA Goddard.
In December 2025, NASA awarded the VIPER delivery task order to Blue Origin, marking a transition to large-scale commercial cargo services.
Blue Ring is a science multiplier developed by Blue Origin.