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A new amended Senate bill requires that NASA’s nearly $3 billion lunar lander award to SpaceX may not be changed or rescinded in order to comply with the requirement that there be at least two contractors.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 …
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 …
