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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Lockheed Martin is a member of the Blue Origin-led National Team developing a crewed lander for NASA’s Human Landing System program.
Telesat signed launch contracts with Blue Origin’s New Glenn to fly 30 to 35 Telesat LEO satellites per launch.
NASA completed certification baseline reviews with Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX on 2020-10-22, confirming lander development plans and agreed standards.
Three companies—Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX—are working on lunar lander designs under 10-month base period awards NASA made in April 2020.
On 2020-08-07, the Air Force planned to terminate the Launch Service Agreements with Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman and did not have budget authority to continue funding those agreements.
Blue Origin competed for the Air Force launch provider role but lost and the Air Force plans to terminate the $500,000,000 Launch Service Agreement that Blue Origin received in October 2018 to advance development of its New Glenn rocket.
Blue Origin built a large rocket factory outside the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to manufacture New Glenn boosters and is developing a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The $500,000,000 Launch Service Agreement awarded in October 2018 was structured to be spread over six years and would have continued through 2024 if Blue Origin had won a launch services procurement contract.
Blue Origin opened a factory in February in Huntsville, Alabama to produce engines for New Glenn and for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.
The FAA supported three licensed launches since the current fiscal year began 2020-10-01, one each by Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX.
New Shepard NS-13 lifted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas test site at 9:36 a.m. Eastern.
Blue Origin planned a first partial-g New Shepard flight around 2022.
The U.S. Air Force awarded Launch Service Agreement contracts to Blue Origin for $500 million, to United Launch Alliance for $967 million, and to Northrop Grumman for $762,000,000 to help the companies defray the costs of developing new rockets and infrastructure while competing for a launch service procurement contract.
SpaceX challenged the U.S. Air Force over contracts the Air Force awarded in October 2018 to United Launch Alliance, Northrop Grumman, and Blue Origin.
NASA’s current funding for the Human Landing System covers the base period of awards made in April 2020 to Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX through February 2021.
Blue Origin posted a job listing seeking a leader to develop commercial space stations in low Earth orbit as part of a new product line called 'Orbital Habitat Formulation'.
Blue Origin announced plans on 2020-09-22 to conduct another test flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle designated NS-13.
Blue Origin has not publicly discussed LEO space station work in the past, but developing LEO destination systems aligns with Jeff Bezos’ long-stated strategy of enabling millions of people to live and work in space.
Blue Origin integrated and tested the lunar landing sensor experiment at its West Texas Launch Site prior to NS-13.
The NS-13 New Shepard mission is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin’s West Texas test site at 11 a.m. Eastern on 2020-09-24.