The Blue Origin BE-4 might get certified for flight tests by December of this year. It is about 5-6 years late for an original 2017 planned operational date. The BE-4 engine project started in 2014. It would be the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled rocket engine ever developed. Using an oxygen-rich staged combustion …
New Shepard’s 23rd mission, a dedicated payloads flight, was to fly 36 payloads from academia, research institutions, and students across the globe. The booster rocket failed about 1 minute into the flight as it reached MaxQ. The unmanned crew capsule did seperate and land safely. There were no passengers but if there were passengers they …
Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced plans for Orbital Reef, a commercially developed, owned, and operated space station to be built in low Earth orbit. The station will open the next chapter of human space exploration and development by facilitating the growth of a vibrant ecosystem and business model for the future. Orbital Reef is …
In 2018, Blue Origin paid consultants to tell them how to copy the success of SpaceX. Ars Technica reviewed the consultant’s advice and findings about rapid iterative testing and how motivated SpaceX employees were. There were other comments about customer focus and focus on achieving low cost. However, the main Blue Origin problems were no …
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says it is reviewing allegations about safety issues at Blue Origin after a former employee and 20 anonymous staff raised concerns in a critical essay published at this link. Blue Origin’s former head of employee communications Alexandra Abrams and 20 other current employees accuse Jeff Bezos and his space …
In 2014, Blue Origin said the BE-4 engine would be ready by 2017 but it is likely slipping to 2022. ULA need BE-4 for its new Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin needs it for the New Glenn rocket. Blue Origin did not have enough components to build development engines, and this has led to long …
Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark will join the auction winner on New Shepard’s first human flight on July 20th, 2021. Ever since Jeff Bezos was five years old, he has dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, he will take that journey with his brother. The greatest adventure, with his best friend. It …
A new amended Senate bill requires that NASA’s nearly $3 billion lunar lander award to SpaceX may not be changed or rescinded in order to comply with the requirement that there be at least two contractors. The NASA Commercial Crew Program was the effort to get safer human-rated spacecraft after the Shuttle. NASA selected two …
ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has four Delta 4-Heavy rockets left to launch in the next few years. All will launch spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. The retirement was announced in 2019 and the last Delta IV Heavy should fly in 2023. ULA’s Delta 4 Heavy’s price has …
The US Air Force is ending Launch Service Agreement contracts awarded in October 2018 to Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, as well as to ULA. The Launch Service Agreement contracts were to help Phase 2 competitors pay for launch vehicle development and infrastructure. Blue Origin received $500 million; Northrop Grumman $792 million and ULA $967 …
The Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket will be a Falcon Heavy class vehicle with a reusable first stage. There are six New Glenn launches scheduled for 2021. In October 2018, the Air Force announced Blue Origin was awarded $500 million for development of New Glenn as a potential competitor in future contracts, including EELV Phase …
