Tag: Blue Origin

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NASA overhauls moon plan — and Blue Origin may benefit

Illustration: Blue Moon lander on lunar surface
An artist’s conception shows the integrated design for the Blue Moon lander. (Blue Origin Illustration)

NASA is reworking its Artemis moon program to add a test mission for commercial lunar landers in low Earth orbit next year, with a crewed lunar landing to follow in 2028 at the earliest. The revised plan raises the profile of the Blue Moon lander that’s being built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.

“We’re all in!” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post to X.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who took up his post last December, announced the schedule shift today. “This is going to be our pathway back to the moon,” he said.

The next step in the pathway is the same as it has been: NASA is getting set to use its giant Space Launch System rocket to launch four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the moon in an Orion capsule. That Artemis 2 mission is currently set for no earlier than April, due to a helium leak that forced this week’s rocket rollback from the launch pad for troubleshooting.

NASA’s previous plan called for following up on Artemis 2 with a crewed lunar landing next year for Artemis 3. However, the development of the SpaceX Starship lander for that mission has proceeded more slowly than expected.

Under the revised architecture, Artemis 3 becomes a crewed orbital test for SpaceX’s Starship and/or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander. The mission could also test the next-generation spacesuits that are being developed for extravehicular activities. The Artemis program’s first crewed lunar landing would follow in 2028, presumably using either Starship or Blue Moon.

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Flight log: Blue Origin team leader flies standby to space

New Shepard launch seen from above
Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket ship rises from its Texas launch pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture sent six more people on a brief suborbital space trip today — including the director of Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch operations and training team.

The flight, known as NS-38, was Blue Origin’s 38th New Shepard mission overall, and the 17th mission that carried people.

Laura Stiles, who joined Blue Origin in 2013, was a late addition to the NS-36 crew. She filled a seat that was left open when one of the would-be spacefliers, Andrew Yaffe, had to bow out due to illness. Blue Origin said Yaffe will fly on a future New Shepard mission.

This was Stiles’ first trip to space, but she’s taken on several other roles associated with the New Shepard suborbital space program, including serving as a flight controller, a crew communicator and a trainer.

Stiles laughed for joy as she emerged from the New Shepard crew capsule at the end of the ride.

“There are so many people who have worked so hard for so many years with all their heart, all their soul, and I got to be there for everybody today,” she said. “The ride is incredible … We taught this training so many times, and it was so like … oh my God! The g’s, and the movement, and going through the clouds, and the Earth against the blackness. … We saw the moon, and things you can’t have pictured or imagined what it would be like to be up there.”

Today’s 10-minute flight was conducted at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. It followed Blue Origin’s standard procedure, with liftoff coming at 10:25 a.m. CT (8:25 a.m. PT). The reusable New Shepard booster sent the crew capsule to a height of 346,722 feet (65.7 miles or 105.7 kilometers) and then flew itself back to a landing pad.

Meanwhile, the crew got out of their seats to float in zero gravity and look out the windows at the black sky of space and the Earth below. They got back in their seats for a parachute-aided descent that ended with touchdown at 10:36 a.m. CT (8:36 a.m. PT).

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Blue Origin plans ultra-fast satellite data network

TeraWave logo superimposed on picture of trees and night sky with star trails
Blue Origin has lifted the curtain on its plan for an ultra-high-speed satellite data network called TeraWave. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’ll be ramping up an ultra-high-speed satellite data network called TeraWave, which will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink network for business from data centers, large-scale enterprises and government customers.

The service appears to dovetail with Amazon Leo, the satellite-based broadband internet service that was Bezos’ brainchild while he served as Amazon’s CEO. Amazon Leo — previously known as Project Kuiper — promises downlink speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). In contrast, TeraWave is targeting higher-end data applications with symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 terabits per second (Tbps), a rate that’s 6,000 times faster.

In today’s announcement, Blue Origin said TeraWave’s constellation would consist of 5,408 laser-linked satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). It plans to start deploying satellites in late 2027, presumably using the company’s New Glenn rockets.

Blue Origin’s plans are discussed in an application and technical annex filed today with the Federal Communications Commission. In its application, the company is seeking waivers from several regulatory requirements in order to get TeraWave off the ground quickly.

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Year in Space: Get ready for magnificent moon missions

Orion making a lunar flyby
An artist’s conception shows the Orion spacecraft’s main engine firing during a lunar flyby. (NASA Illustration)

Lunar missions once felt like the domain of history books rather than current events, but an upcoming trip around the moon is poised to generate headlines at a level not seen since the Apollo era.

NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, which is due to launch four astronauts on a round-the-moon journey as a warmup for a future lunar landing, is shaping up as the spaceflight highlight of 2026. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who took the agency’s helm this month after a tumultuous year, says it’s the top item on his must-see list.

“What’s not to be excited about?” he said last week on CNBC. “We’re sending American astronauts around the moon. It’s the first time we’ve done that in a half-century. … We’re weeks away, potentially a month or two away at most from sending American astronauts around the moon again.”

The Pacific Northwest plays a significant role in the back-to-moon campaign. For example, L3Harris Technologies’ team in Redmond, Wash., built thrusters for Artemis 2’s Orion crew vehicle. And Artemis 2 isn’t the only upcoming moon mission with Seattle-area connections: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, headquartered in Kent, plans to send an uncrewed Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to the lunar surface in 2026 to help NASA get set for future moon trips.

“We are taking our first steps to help open up the lunar frontier for all of humanity,” Paul Brower, Blue Origin’s director of lunar operations, said in a recent LinkedIn post.

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United Launch Alliance’s former CEO joins Blue Origin

Image: Tory Bruno
United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno, shown here at the Space Symposium in 2016, is joining Blue Origin. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Eleven years after United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno partnered with Blue Origin to create a new rocket engine, he’s joining Jeff Bezos’ space venture as the president of Blue Origin’s newly created National Security Group.

The move could signal a major shift in the commercial space race as Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin revs up its competition with SpaceX. Bezos welcomed Bruno to his company on social media, and Bruno told Bezos that “we are going to do important work together.”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman added his congratulations via the X social-media platform.

In its Dec. 26 announcement of the change, Blue Origin said Bruno would report to CEO Dave Limp. “We share a deep belief in supporting our nation with the best technology we can build,” Limp said in a post on X. “Tory brings unmatched experience, and I’m confident he’ll accelerate our ability to deliver on that mission.”

Bruno, 64, led ULA for 11 years following a 30-year career at Lockheed Martin. Not long after taking the reins at ULA in 2014, Bruno sat beside Bezos to announce a close collaboration on the development of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine, which is used on ULA’s Vulcan rocket as well as Blue Origin’s orbital-class New Glenn rocket.

Since then, SpaceX has displaced United Launch Alliance as America’s dominant launch company. In 2014, ULA executed 14 launches while SpaceX executed six. So far this year, SpaceX has registered 165 launches, while ULA has registered six.

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Blue Origin launches first wheelchair user into space

NS-37 crew member Michaela Benthaus spreads her arms in celebration as she sits in a wheelchair with Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule behind her
German engineer Michaela Benthaus celebrates after her suborbital space trip. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture added a page to the space history books today by sending the first wheelchair user into space.

“It was the coolest experience,” said Michaela “Michi” Benthaus, a German-born aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency who sustained a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident in 2018.

Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket ship lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 8:15 a.m. CT (6:15 a.m. PT). An initial launch attempt had been called off on Dec. 18 because the flight team “observed an issue with our built-in checks prior to flight,” Blue Origin said. It didn’t provide further details about the issue, but today’s countdown went off without a hitch.

This was the 37th New Shepard mission, and the 16th to carry humans on a brief ride above the 100-kilometer (62-mile) altitude level that marks the internationally accepted boundary of space. Eighty-six people, including Bezos himself, have now flown on New Shepard. Six have gone multiple times.

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Blue Origin supersizes New Glenn rocket for heavier tasks

Illustration: New Glenn rocket lifting off with moon in the sky above
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket with nine BE-4 engines on its first stage. (Blue Origin Illustration)

Just a week after a successful launch of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it will make New Glenn even heavier.

The new super-heavy-lift variant of Blue Origin’s most powerful rocket, known as New Glenn 9×4, will feature nine methane-fueled BE-4 engines on the first stage, up from seven; and four hydrogen-fueled BE-3U engines on the second stage, up from two. The 9×4 rocket will also have a bigger fairing, or nose-cone section, measuring 8.7 meters (28.5 feet) wide, as opposed to 7 meters (23 feet) for the fairing currently in use.

Blue Origin says it’s working to enhance the performance of the rocket engines on both the New Glenn 9×4 and the standard 7×2 model. Other upgrades will include a reusable fairing, a lower-cost tank design and a higher-performing thermal protection system.

The upgrades will be phased into upcoming New Glenn missions starting with the next launch, which is expected to occur early next year. “These enhancements will immediately benefit customers already manifested on New Glenn to fly to destinations including low Earth orbit, the moon and beyond,” the company said in an online update.

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Blue Origin sends probes to Mars and brings back booster

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rises from its Florida launch pad
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rises from its Florida launch pad. (Blue Origin Photo via Dave Limp / X)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture sent twin orbiters on the first leg of their journey to Mars today, marking a successful sequel to January’s first liftoff of the company’s heavy-lift New Glenn launch vehicle.

The trouble-free launch of NASA’s Escapade probes, plus today’s first-ever recovery of a New Glenn booster, bolstered Blue Origin’s status as a worthy competitor for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has come to dominate the space industry. SpaceX is the only other company to bring back an orbital-class booster successfully.

New Glenn — which is named after John Glenn, the first American to go into orbit — rose from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 3:55 p.m. ET (12:55 p.m. PT). Today’s liftoff followed earlier attempts that had to be scratched, initially due to cloudy weather on Earth, and then due to a solar storm in space.

Minutes after New Glenn rose into the sky, the mission plan called for the rocket’s first-stage booster to fly itself back to a touchdown on a floating platform in the Atlantic that was named Jacklyn after Bezos’ late mother. Blue Origin’s first attempt to recover a New Glenn booster failed in January — but this time, the maneuver was successful.

That achievement was greeted by wild cheers from Blue Origin team members watching the webcast, including Jeff Bezos at Mission Control and a crowd at the company’s headquarters in Kent, Wash. The uncertainty about recovering the booster was reflected in the nickname it was given: “Never Tell Me the Odds.”

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Flight log: Six spacefliers go suborbital with Blue Origin

Liftoff for Blue Origin New Shepard rocket
Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket ship rises from its Texas launch pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture sent six more people on a brief suborbital space trip today aboard a New Shepard rocket ship. The flight, known as NS-36, was Blue Origin’s 36th New Shepard mission and the 15th crewed flight.

Today’s 10-minute flight was conducted at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. It followed Blue Origin’s standard procedure, with liftoff coming at 8:40 a.m. CT (6:40 a.m. PT). The reusable booster sent the crew capsule to a height of 65.7 miles (346,791 feet, or 106 kilometers), and then flew itself back to a landing pad.

Meanwhile, the crew got out of their seats to float in zero gravity and look out the windows at the black sky of space and the Earth below. They got back in their seats for a parachute-aided descent that ended with touchdown at 8:50 a.m. CT (6:50 a.m. PT).

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Jeff Bezos sees orbital data centers as ‘next step’ in space

Jeff Bezos at Italian Tech Week 2025
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, speaks at Italian Tech Week 2025 in Turin. (Italian Tech Week via YouTube)

What’s the next killer app for the final frontier? According to Jeff Bezos, it’s a future fleet of gigawatt data centers, flying in orbit and powered by sunlight.

Bezos — who founded the Amazon retail giant as well as his privately held Blue Origin space venture — pointed to the prospects for orbital data centers on Oct. 3 during a fireside chat at Italian Tech Week 2025 in Turin. He cast the technology as the most cost-efficient way to satisfy the tech industry’s need for more power to fuel advances in artificial intelligence.

But don’t expect cloud computing to leave Earth behind immediately. Bezos estimated that the transition from Earth-based to space-based data processing would take more than 10 years.

“I bet it’s not more than 20 years,” he said. “We’re going to start building these giant gigawatt data centers in space. So, these giant training clusters, those will be better built in space, because we have solar power there, 24/7.”

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