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 2021-08-25 flight was Blue Origin’s first New Shepard flight since the inaugural crewed flight on 2021-07-20.
The Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle is developed by United Launch Alliance and is powered by Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines.
The NS-17 flight will be Blue Origin’s first New Shepard flight since the 2021-07-20 crewed flight.
Blue Origin planned to conduct two more crewed New Shepard launches 2021 in addition to a payload-only flight.
United Launch Alliance inked a deal with Blue Origin in 2014 to jointly fund the development of a liquid rocket engine.
Blue Origin scheduled the NS-17 mission from Launch Site One in West Texas for 9:35 a.m. Eastern on 2021-08-25.
Vulcan Centaur’s booster propulsion will be provided by a pair of BE-4 engines manufactured in the United States by Blue Origin.
Blue Origin forecast in 2015 that the BE-4 would be ready by 2017 but had not delivered flight-ready engines needed for Vulcan’s inaugural flight as of the article.
The FAA increased the MPL value on Blue Origin’s license from $75,000,000 to $150,000,000 in July when the agency modified the license to allow Blue Origin to carry people on the vehicle.
United Launch Alliance designated Vulcan as its next-generation rocket in 2015 and awarded Blue Origin a contract to supply BE-4 engines in 2018.
Blue Origin expects to perform two more crewed suborbital flights in 2021, including at least one with six people on board.
Blue Origin announced the 2021-07-20 flight date when it started the auction in 2021-05-05.
Blue Origin opened its Launch Site One in the West Texas desert north of Van Horn to the media for the first time on the NS-16 mission.
Blue Origin held an auction that concluded on 2021-06-12 with an unidentified winning bidder placing a $28,000,000 bid for a New Shepard seat.
Blue Origin plans to increase its New Shepard flight rate in 2022 compared with 2021.
The Government Accountability Office denied the Blue Origin and Dynetics protests on 2021-07-30.
$389,000,000 of NASA’s available HLS-related funding was already committed to base period awards made to Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX in 2020.
The Government Accountability Office released a 76-page decision on 2021-08-10 denying protests filed in April by Blue Origin and Dynetics of NASA’s Human Landing System award to SpaceX.
The Government Accountability Office rejected on 2021-07-30 protests filed by Blue Origin and Dynetics regarding the SpaceX NASA contract for Starship development.
The auction for the first paid seat on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket generated a $28,000,000 donation to Club for the Future.