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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Blue Origin will launch the large rocket New Glenn in mid-October 2023.
SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing human landing systems for the Artemis missions to ferry astronauts between lunar orbit and the lunar surface.
Blue Origin is considering additional launch sites for its operations.
Blue Origin is considering the establishment of new spaceports.
Blue Origin plans to ramp up New Shepard flights to once a week in the next couple of years.
Blue Origin plans to increase the flight rate of its New Shepard suborbital rocket.
NASA commissioned Blue Origin in 2023 to launch a mission to study the magnetosphere of Mars.
The mission architecture places Blue Origin in charge of payload integration, lander design, testing, and deployment.
The payloads for Blue Origin's first CLPS delivery include Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies and a Laser Retroreflective Array.
Blue Origin previously won its first Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) delivery for 2025 using its Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lander to carry NASA payloads.
NASA will decide whether to exercise the deployment option after Blue Origin completes its first MK1 flight and demonstrates technical readiness.
Blue Origin has obtained a second HLS contract with NASA and is developing the Blue Moon MK2 for future Artemis missions.
NASA has awarded Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, a Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order to deliver a rover to the Moon’s South Pole region.
Blue Origin's Blue Moon MK1 lander is currently in production.
NASA will manage VIPER's scientific operations, while Blue Origin will handle the landing mission architecture, integration of VIPER into Blue Moon, and deployment on the lunar surface.
VIPER will hitch a ride on Blue Origin’s second MK1 lander, expected to reach the Moon in late 2027.
This is Blue Origin's second contract for lunar transportation under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
The full award for the Blue Origin task order is worth $190 million, but the company is guaranteed only a fraction for design work and a demonstration landing.
Blue Origin's first delivery is targeted for launch later this year to deliver NASA's Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies and Laser Retroreflective Array payloads to the Moon’s South Pole region.
Blue Origin is preparing two Mark I robotic lunar landers for launch, with the first one targeted to fly later this year.