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 is using Marshall Space Flight Center Test Stand 4670 to help accelerate BE-4 engine production and testing.
Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone founded Relativity Space after leaving their jobs at Blue Origin and SpaceX.
William Shatner flew on a Blue Origin suborbital flight in 2021 at the age of 90, making him the oldest person to go to space.
The Space Force awarded Blue Origin nearly $18,000,000 for National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 early integration studies.
The Space Force awarded Blue Origin an integration study contract for $935,000 on 2023-12-18.
The Space Force modified Blue Origin’s integration study contract on 2024-01-23 for an additional $17,000,000.
Redwire Corporation has been awarded a contract to develop and deliver four Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) wings for Blue Origin’s Blue Ring multi-orbit space mobility platform.
Blue Origin revealed Blue Ring in October as a spacecraft platform focused on providing in-space logistics and delivery from medium Earth orbit to cislunar space.
On 2024-01-22, Redwire won a contract from Blue Origin to provide four Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) systems, cameras, and power distribution units.
NASA selected Blue Origin and SpaceX, along with three other companies, in the second round of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program in November 2019.
Blue Origin’s cargo lander work is being done under options to Blue Origin’s HLS contract awarded in May 2023.
The exercised HLS options cover work through a preliminary design review and do not require additional funding beyond the $3,400,000,000 allocated to Blue Origin and the $1,150,000,000 allocated for SpaceX’s Option B.
NASA has asked both Artemis human landing system providers, SpaceX and Blue Origin, to apply knowledge gained in developing their systems under existing contracts toward future variations to potentially deliver large cargo on later missions.
NASA added a combined $99,500,000 in funding to existing Space Act Agreements with Blue Origin and Voyager Space on 2024-01-05.
Blue Origin received a $42,000,000 increase to its original $130,000,000 CLD award for development of the Orbital Reef space station.
NASA combined the $89,000,000 reallocated from Northrop Grumman with other program funding to reach the $99,500,000 added to the Blue Origin and Voyager Space agreements.
The agreements with Axiom Space, Blue Origin, and Voyager Space are part of NASA’s strategy to support development of commercial space stations intended to be in operation by late this decade to support a transition from the ISS.
The $42,000,000 increase to Blue Origin's award includes additional milestones for subsystem design reviews, technology maturation, and work on the station’s life support systems.
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is expected to make its debut in the second half of 2024.
Blue Origin plans to increase New Shepard flight cadence in 2024.