Blue Origin
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace and space tourism |
| Founded | September 2000 |
| Headquarters | Kent, Washington |
| Key people | Jeff Bezos |
| Products | Sub-orbital spaceflight |
| Revenue | n/a |
| Website | www.blueorigin.com |
Blue Origin is a privately funded aerospace company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The company was awarded $3.7 million in funding in 2009 by NASA via a Space Act Agreement[1][2] under the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program for development of concepts and technologies to support future human spaceflight operations.[3][4] The company's innovative[peacock term] "pusher" Launch Abort System (LAS) was one of the technologies that was of particular interest to NASA. To date abort systems have been of the tractor variety, which pulls a crew vehicle to safety in case of an emergency.
Initially focused on sub-orbital spaceflight, the company has built and flown a testbed of its New Shepard spacecraft design at their Culberson County, Texas facility. According to company statements, it initially planned on placing the New Shepard in commercial suborbital tourist service in 2010 with flights about once a week.[5] However, in 2008 the publicized timetable stated that Blue Origin will fly unmanned in 2011, and manned in 2012.[6]
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[edit] History
Since its founding, the company — the motto of which is Latin for "Step-by-Step, Ferociously" — has been notoriously tight-lipped about its plans.[5] Although the company was formally incorporated in 2000, its existence only became public in 2003, when Bezos started buying land in Texas and interested parties followed up on the purchases. This was a topic of some interest in local politics,[7] and his rapid aggregation of the lots under a variety of whimsically named shell companies was called a "land grab".[8]
In January 2005, Bezos told the editor of the Van Horn Advocate that Blue Origin is developing a sub-orbital space vehicle that will take off and land vertically and carry three or more astronauts to the edge of space.[9] The spacecraft is based on technology like that used for the McDonnell Douglas DC-X and derivative DC-XA. Bezos told Reuters in November 2004 that his company hopes to progress to orbital spaceflight. As of January 2005[update], the company's website announced that it hopes to establish an "enduring human presence in space", but the 2007 version talks instead of aiming to "patiently and step-by-step, to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system".
In a 2011 interview, Bezos indicated that he founded the company to help enable "anybody to go into space" and that to do so, he must focus on two objectives: thus, the mission of Blue Origin is to decrease the cost of access to space and increase the safety of human spaceflight.[10]
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson worked part-time at Blue Origin until November 15, 2006.[11]
[edit] Facilities
The company is headquartered in a warehouse situated on 25 acres (10 ha) of industrial land in Kent, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, where its research and development is located. A basic launch pad is located in Texas at 31°27′06″N 104°45′46″W / 31.4517°N 104.7628°W, about 3.9 miles (6.3 km) north of a check-out building.
[edit] New Shepard
The company plans to build a suborbital vehicle called New Shepard. The New Shepard will be controlled entirely by on-board computers, without ground control. It will be powered by high-test peroxide (HTP) and RP-1 kerosene. [12]
A number of test vehicles will also be built. The first example, named the Goddard (also known as PM1), first flew on November 13, 2006. The flight was successful. However, a second test flight filed for December 2 never launched.[13][14] According to Federal Aviation Administration records, two further flights were performed by Goddard.
In an interview with television show host Charlie Rose on November 19, 2007, Bezos reported that the construction of a second test vehicle was in progress and that a third development vehicle would be built after that, before any commercial flights would begin.[15]
A Federal Aviation Administration NOTAM indicated that a flight test was scheduled for August 24, 2011.[16] The August 24, 2011 test flight in west Texas failed when ground personnel lost contact and control of the vehicle. The company recovered remnants of the spacecraft after a ground search.[17] Blue Origin released the results of the cause of the test vehicle failure on September 2. As the vehicle reached a speed of Mach 1.2 and 45,000 feet (14,000 m) altitude, a "flight instability drove an angle of attack that triggered [the] range safety system to terminate thrust on the vehicle."[18]
[edit] Orbital spacecraft
Blue Origin has also started work on developing systems for an orbital spacecraft. In 2010, under the CCDev Program, NASA awarded money to Blue Origin, to develop a pusher abort escape system, as well as a composite pressure vessel. This was later revealed to be a part of a larger system, designed for a biconic capsule, that would be launched atop an Atlas V 402.[19] On November 8, 2010, it was announced that Blue Origin had completed all milestones under its CCDev Space Act Agreement.[20]
In April 2011, Blue Origin received a commitment from NASA for US$22 million of funding under the CCDev phase 2 program. The NASA funds are intended to accelerate development of a manned orbital spacecraft (Space Vehicle) and launch escape technology which can be used for New Shepard and the Space Vehicle, with substantial additional development funding expected to be provided by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.The funds will also be used to accelerate the development and testing of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine for the Reusable Booster System which will be used in a later phase to launch the Space Vehicle to orbit (the first flights of the Space Vehicle will use the Atlas V rocket).[21]
[edit] Test flights
- First test flight: 13 November 2006, 06:30 (Goddard)[22]
- Second test flight: 22 March 2007 (Goddard)[23]
- Third test flight: 19 April 2007 (Goddard)[24]
- Fourth test flight: 06 May 2011 (New Shepard propulsion module (PM2))[25]
- Fifth test flight: 24 August 2011 (PM2, failure, loss of vehicle)[26]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Blue Origin Space Act Agreement". http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/471971main_NNJ10TA02S_blue_origin_SAA_R.pdf.
- ^ "Space Act Agreement Amendment One". http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/pdf/471970main_NNJ10TA02S_blue_origin_amend_1_r.pdf.
- ^ "NASA Selects Commercial Firms to Begin Development of Crew Transportation Concepts and Technology Demonstrations for Human Spaceflight Using Recovery Act Funds". press release (NASA). February 1, 2010. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/feb/HQ_C10-004_Commercia_Crew_Dev.html. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
- ^ Jeff Foust. "Blue Origin proposes orbital vehicle". http://www.newspacejournal.com/2010/02/18/blue-origin-proposes-orbital-vehicle/.
- ^ a b "Blue's Rocket Clues". cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com. 2006-06-24. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/06/24/669.aspx. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- ^ http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/2008/12/whatever-happened-to-blue-orig.html
- ^ "Blue Origin Revealed". cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com. 2006-11-11. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/03/26062.aspx. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- ^ "Buzz in West Texas is about Jeff Bezos space craft launch site". The Wall Street Journal. 2006-11-10. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116312683235519444.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- ^ "Blue Origin Spaceport Plans are Talk of Texas Town". space.com. 2005-03-15. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ap_bezos_spaceport_050315.html. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- ^ Levy, Stephen (2011-11-13). "Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think". Wired. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/ff_bezos/all/1. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
- ^ . http://web.mac.com/nealstephenson/Neal_Stephensons_Site/Blue_Origin_LLC.html. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
- ^ http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/media/20060829_Blue_Origin_EA_FONSI_signed.pdf
- ^ "Blue Origin Rocket Report". cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com. 2006-11-28. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/11/28/16017.aspx. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- ^ "Blue Alert For Blastoff". cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com. 2006-12-02. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/12/02/16849.aspx. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- ^ Bezos, Jeff; Rose, Charlie (2007-11-19). "A conversation with Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos". charlierose.com. http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/11/19/1/a-conversation-with-amazon-com-ceo-jeff-bezos. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ "1/3552 NOTAM Details". faa.gov. 2011-08-23. http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_1_3552.html. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ^ Pasztor, Andy (2011-09-02). "Bezos-Funded Spaceship Misfires". wsjonline.com. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904716604576546712416626614.html?mod=googlenews_wsj.
- ^ Bezos, Jeff (2011-09-02). "Successful Short Hop, Set Back, and Next Vehicle". Letter. Blue Origin. http://blueorigin.com/letter.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
- ^ http://www.aiaa.org/pdf/industry/presentations/Lindenmoyer_C3PO.pdf
- ^ "Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Round One Companies Have Reached Substantial Hardware Milestones In Only 9 Months, New Images and Data Show". http://www.commercialspaceflight.org/Other%20Content/High-Resolution%20Version%20-%20CCDev%20Significant%20Hardware%20Milestones%20Reached%20-%20Nov%208%202010.pdf.
- ^ Morring, Frank, Jr. (2011-04-22). "Five Vehicles Vie To Succeed Space Shuttle". Aviation Week. http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/awst/2011/04/25/AW_04_25_2011_p24-313867.xml&headline=Five%20Vehicles%20Vie%20To%20Succeed%20Space%20Shuttle. Retrieved 2011-02-23. "the CCDev-2 awards, ... went to Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX)."
- ^ Graczyk, Michael (2006-11-14). "Private space firm launches 1st test rocket". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2007-01-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20070107162505/http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/16008383.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- ^ Boyle, Alan (2007-03-23). "Rocket Revelations". MSNBC. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/03/23/99714.aspx. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
- ^ "Recently Completed/Historical Launch Data". FAA AST. http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/launch_data/permitted_historical_launch/. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
- ^ "Recently Completed/Historical Launch Data". FAA AST. http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/launch_data/permitted_historical_launch/. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
- ^ "Blue Origin has a bad day (and so do some of the media)". http://www.newspacejournal.com/2011/09/02/blue-origin-has-a-bad-day-and-so-do-some-of-the-media/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Amazon Enters the Space Race Wired Magazine (July 2003)
- Amazon CEO gives us peek into space plans, a January 2005 article from The Seattle Times
- Amazon.com founder's space venture has West Texas county abuzz (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 12, 2005)
- Blue Origin West Texas Commercial Launch Site Environmental Assessment
- Latest Blue Origin News on the Space Fellowship
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Coordinates: 47°24′37″N 122°14′15″W / 47.41028°N 122.2375°W
