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 …
Read moreUS Air Force Cut Blue Origin and Northrop Rocket Development Funding
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 …
Read moreBlue Origin Plans to Get Into the Orbital Launch Game in 2021
Blue Origin will lead a lunar lander development project. They will work with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. These partners have decades of experience supporting NASA with human space flight systems, launch vehicles, orbital logistics, deep-space missions, interplanetary navigation and planetary landings. This part of the US effort to return to the moon by …
Blue Origin Upgrades to Kennedy Space Center Site 36 for Reusable New Glenn Launches
Europe has provided 3 million euros in funding for a three year investigation of reusable rockets. This program is not funded to actually build or fly any vehicles. They want to agree on specifics of two designs. Europe is tentatively starting a low commitment reusable rocket program nine years after SpaceX announced their program. Europe …
Jeff Bezos discussed his vision to go to space to benefit Earth. He announced the Blue Moon lunar lander and provided updates on the New Shepard sub-orbital rocket and the New Glenn rocket.
Blue Origin has started building a BE-4 rocket-engine production facility in Huntsville, Alabama. It will cost more than $200 million and employ about 300 when it opens in March 2020. This was reported by the Herald Net. The facility will build the BE-4 engine that Blue Origin expects to finish developing later this year. Blue …
Read moreBlue Origin Starts Building a BE-4 Rocket Engine Factory
Blue Origin has successfully launched a first commercial payload. It was a sub-orbital launch with the New Shepard rocket. The New Shepard system took 8 NASA-sponsored research and technology payloads into sub-orbital space. This flight was dedicated to NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, an essential program for researchers providing access to microgravity for technology development. Blue …
Read moreNew Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket and a Successful First Commercial Sub-orbital Payload
The Air Force’s recent funding should see close to $1 billion go towards Blue Origin and its BE4 engine. The BE4 engine is used in Blue Origin rocket and the ULA Vulcan rocket. $500 million in OTA funds will go directly to Blue Origin. $967 million will go to the Vulcan rocket. The Blue Origin …
Blue Origin New Shepard flew again for the seventh time on Dec. 12, 2017, from Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site. Known as Mission 7 (M7), the mission featured the next-generation booster and the first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0. Crew Capsule 2.0 features large windows, measuring 2.4 feet wide, 3.6 feet tall. M7 also …
