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 submitted a bid of $5,990,000,000 for the HLS Option A competition.
Blue Origin’s bid for the Human Landing System competition was $5,990,000,000.
NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk indicated on 2021-04-27 that it was too soon to determine whether the GAO protests by Blue Origin and Dynetics would delay moving forward on Human Landing System work.
Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of advanced development programs at Blue Origin, stated in an affidavit included with the protest that Blue Origin received no feedback on its proposal until NASA notified the company on 2021-04-16 that it had not been selected.
Blue Origin filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office on 2021-04-26 over NASA’s decision to select only SpaceX for the Human Landing System program.
Blue Origin’s National Team submitted a $5,990,000,000 bid for the Human Landing System award.
Blue Origin’s first New Glenn launch was pushed back to late 2022 after Blue Origin lost a significant Pentagon contract last year.
Blue Origin completed New Shepard Mission NS-15 on 2021-04-14.
Blue Origin completed a New Shepard test flight on 2021-04-14.
The New Shepard vehicle lifted off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 12:51 p.m. Eastern on 2021-04-14.
Jeff Bezos expected Blue Origin to begin crewed New Shepard flights by the end of 2019 based on a February 2019 interview.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-15 flight is targeting liftoff on Wednesday, 2021-04-14 from Launch Site One in West Texas.
DARPA awarded Blue Origin a $2,500,000 contract under the DRACO program.
On 2021-04-12, DARPA selected Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin to develop competing spacecraft concepts for a demonstration of nuclear thermal propulsion under the DRACO program.
The HLS base period awards made in 2020-04-01 to teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX were set to end 2021-04-30.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew capsule will use reaction control thrusters to spin at a rate of 11 revolutions per minute to simulate lunar gravity.
Blue Origin had been planning the first reduced-gravity New Shepard flight in 2022.
Kencoa Aerospace made a rocket engine supply contract with Blue Origin under which Kencoa Aerospace LLC will produce parts for Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engines.
Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, and Relativity are either building new launch facilities or have announced plans to launch from Cape Canaveral.
Blue Origin’s Launch Complex 36 will host New Glenn launches starting no earlier than late 2022.