The New York Times reports “the New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin, which brought 92 people on trips to the edge of space, will cease flying for at least two years as the company as the company prioritizes NASA contracts.”
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Tag: Blue Origin
Blue Origin Sends Six Space Tourists to Edge of Space
Blue Origin launched six people to suborbital space Thursday (Jan. 22). SPACE reports it “was the 17th human spaceflight” for the company, “and the 38th mission overall for New Shepard, the company’s autonomous, reusable rocket-capsule combo.”
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Blue Origin Set for Six-Person Suborbital Mission on Jan. 22
SPACE reports Blue Origin will launch six people “to the final frontier on Thursday (Jan. 22), and you can watch the space tourism mission live. Blue Origin is scheduled to launch its NS-38 suborbital mission from West Texas on Thursday, during a window that opens at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT; 8:30 a.m. local Texas time). You can watch it live via Blue Origin.”
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Isaacman Meets With SpaceX, Blue Origin to Explore Faster Artemis Timeline
Aviation Week reports, “NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman this week met with SpaceX and Blue Origin officials to get a better sense of how to speed up the timelines around efforts to return to the Moon and look beyond. The meeting took place Jan. 13, ‘to understand the latest plans to accelerate NASA’s Artemis timeline,’ Isaacman said via social media.”
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Blue Origin Set to Launch New Glenn Following Weekend Weather Delay
Spaceflight Now Update at 10:40 am ET: “NASA scrubbed the launch due to strong solar impacts.”
Spaceflight Now reports Blue Origin was able to secure permission from the Federal Aviation Administration for a daytime launch. According the article, Blue Origin will “take another crack at launching its 98-meter-tall (321 ft) New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Wednesday, Nov. 12.” An 87-minute launch window “opens at 2:50 p.m. EST (1950 UTC) on Wednesday.”
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Spaceflight Now
Blue Origin Successfully Test-Fires New Glenn Rocket Engines at Cape Canaveral
Ars Technica reports, “The road to the second flight of Blue Origin’s heavy-lifting New Glenn rocket got a lot clearer Thursday night with a success test-firing of the launcher’s seven main engines on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Standing on a seaside launch pad, the New Glenn rocket ignited its seven BE-4 main engines at 9:59 pm EDT Thursday (01:59 UTC Friday). The engines burned for 38 seconds while the rocket remained firmly on the ground, according to a social media post by Blue Origin.”
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Blue Origin Performs its 15th Space Tourism Launch
SPACE reports, “Blue Origin launched its 15th space tourism flight” yesterday (Oct. 8), “sending six people on a brief trip to the final frontier, including a mystery passenger who only revealed his identity after the flight. The company’s New Shepard vehicle lifted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site [Wednesday] at 9:40 a.m. EDT (1340 GMT; 8:40 a.m. local Texas time), kicking off a suborbital flight known as NS-36.”
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Blue Origin to Build Payload Processing Facility at Cape Canaveral SFS
Aviation Week reports, “Blue Origin will build a new payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, under a U.S. Space Force contract announced Oct. 7. The service’s Space Systems Command (SSC) recently awarded the space technology company a $78.25 million contract under its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Space Vehicle Processing Commercial Solutions Opening contract, to help expand the Eastern Range’s rocket processing capacity by 2028, the command said in a release.”
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Blue Origin to Grow New Shepard Fleet
Aviation Week reports, “Blue Origin is developing three new suborbital New Shepard launch systems and mulling expanding flight services beyond West Texas, the company said Sept. 28. The current two-ship fleet will be retired by the end of 2027, with the first of three new spacecraft expected to debut next year, Senior Vice President Phil Joyce said during the Global Spaceport Alliance forum ahead of the International Astronautical Congress being held in Sydney this week.”
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Blue Origin to Land NASA’s Ice-hunting VIPER Rover on Moon in 2027
SPACE reports, “VIPER has officially come back from the dead. The NASA moon robot, whose name is short for ‘Volatiles Investigating Polar Explorer Rover,’ will hitch a ride to the lunar surface with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in late 2027, agency officials announced this afternoon.”
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