NASA's Artemis lander concept process reached a point where 5 companies were awarded further millions to mature sustainable human landing system concepts. The awards will be given under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2) Appendix N broad agency announcement, and represent a combined total of $146 million USD for work over the next 15 months.
The latest Blue Origin launch took place this morning at approximately 9:35 AM (EDT) with a live broadcast that is now available to watch in replay mode. This launch was made into suborbital space as the 17th flight of the Blue Origin New Shepard craft. Onboard were 11 NASA-sponsored experiments included in a total of 18 commercial payloads.
There are significant amounts of money to be made in the commercial spaceflight program with NASA. With significant amounts of money to be made, multiple companies compete to land contracts with NASA for various missions and to place payloads into space. SpaceX seems to be the darling of NASA right now, winning more contracts and handling more missions than other competing companies. Recently, SpaceX was given the contract worth billions of dollars to place a lunar lander on the moon's surface.
Blue Origin may be embroiled in a contentious legal battle with NASA over the Artemis lunar lander contract, but that's not stopping Jeff Bezos' rocket company from scheduling its next launch. August 25 will see New Shepard blast off early in the morning for its 17th mission, and there'll be NASA Moon tech clinging to the outside of the booster on the way.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published its response to Blue Origin's and Dynetics' protests over the lunar lander contract granted by NASA to competitor SpaceX. The protests were filed in late April, resulting in NASA temporarily pausing the lunar lander contract given to SpaceX while the GAO resolved the two formal protests.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of private space company Blue Origin, has penned an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson that talks about a recent controversy involving the agency and SpaceX while offering a new proposal: it'll cover up to $2 billion to get back into the Artemis program. As well, the company is offering to take on the burden of significant costs above the $2 billion figure.
This week, the Federal Aviation Administration opened a new office in Houston that is designed to help the agency monitor nearby private space companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin. The facility will help the agency monitor activities conducted by private space companies in and near Texas, the FAA explained, joining the new tracking system it announced last month.
How high do you need to fly in order to officially qualify as an astronaut? That's an answer the US FAA has just weighed in on and, while the definition of where space begins may still be controversial, what it takes to get the coveted Astronaut Wings is now tougher - and could have big implications for billionaire space-fans like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.
Blue Origin's first crewed flight was a success today, with Jeff Bezos getting his long-awaited taste of space, and a new video shows just what it's like at the apogee of your multi-million rocket trip. New Shepard only spent a few minutes in zero-gravity, as the crew capsule passed the Kármán Line boundary that's one of the accepted definitions of where space actually begins.
Today was a big day for Blue Origin, as the company launched the first human flight on its New Shepard rocket. Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos was on this initial crewed flight, joined by his brother Mark Bezos, an 18-year-old student named Oliver Daemen, and 82-year-old Wally Funk, one of the Mercury 13 and - after today - officially the oldest person to fly to space.
The winner of Blue Origin's auction, who spent $28 million on a ticket aboard New Shepard's first crewed flight, has opted not to join Jeff Bezos aboard the spacecraft's maiden voyage. The unnamed winner has blamed "scheduling conflicts" for the decision to take a later flight, Blue Origin said today, as it announced the 18 year old who will take their place.
Blue Origin's first human spaceflight - and Jeff Bezos' ride up into zero-gravity - has been given FAA approval, with the launch scheduled for July 20th. It's an opportunity for the Amazon founder to get his own spacecraft seat-time, after Richard Branson caught a ride on rival Virgin Galactic's first passenger flight over the weekend, though the billionaire bragging is unlikely to be settled for some time yet.