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 has invested more than $2,500,000,000 in facilities and infrastructure at all sites.
Blue Origin is completing new facilities at Launch Complex 36, with major construction wrapping up and system activation and checkouts starting.
Blue Origin won a $500,000,000 Launch Service Agreement with the Air Force in October 2018 that was terminated in December 2020 after Blue Origin received $255,500,000.
Blue Origin originally targeted New Glenn’s inaugural launch for 2020 and had delayed it to late 2021 before setting the new 2022 target.
Blue Origin’s overall investment in facilities for New Glenn totals $2.5 billion, including the New Glenn factory and a BE-4 engine factory in Huntsville, Alabama.
Blue Origin completed a qualification version of a seven-meter payload fairing for New Glenn and a payload adapter that will be tested at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio.
Blue Origin estimated that not winning the five-year NSSL Phase 2 procurement contract cost the company up to $3,000,000,000 in revenue.
The Launch Complex 36 pad cost Blue Origin $1,000,000,000.
Blue Origin intends to deliver flight-qualified BE-4 engines to United Launch Alliance on time for ULA’s planned maiden launch of the Vulcan rocket late 2021.
Blue Origin has invested $1,000,000,000 in the rebuild of historic Launch Complex 36, which is nearing completion.
Blue Origin was not selected for the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement and lost to United Launch Alliance and SpaceX.
The latest task order awarded to Millennium Engineering and Integration supports certification of Vulcan including the new BE-4 engine provided by Blue Origin.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan are also aiming for debut launches in 2021 and are powered by BE-4 methalox engines.
Telesat signed an agreement in 2019 with Blue Origin for launch services on the New Glenn rocket under a non-exclusive arrangement.
NASA delayed a decision on which of the three companies that won base period HLS contracts in April 2020—Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX—will receive Option A awards to proceed with lander development.
Competition from companies using thousands of smallsat LEO constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink and Blue Origin contributed to Loon’s business case failure.
NASA will execute two-month no-cost extensions to the HLS contracts with Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX that were set to end on 2021-02-28.
The two-month no-cost extensions allow the HLS contracts awarded in 2020-04-01 to Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX to run through 2021-04-30 without providing additional funding to the companies.
The Space Force obtained limited rights to data and hardware developed by Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman under the Launch Service Agreements in exchange for the government’s investment.
The U.S. Air Force awarded Launch Service Agreements to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and United Launch Alliance in October 2018.