blue origin Archives

January 11, 2025January 11, 2025 by Matt Williams

NASA is Sending a Vacuum Cleaner to the Moon

The Lunar Planet Vac, or LPV, is one of 10 payloads set to be carried to the Moon by the Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander in 2025. Credit: Firefly Aerospace

By the end of this decade, NASA, the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA), Roscosmos, and other space agencies plan to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. A crucial aspect of these plans is using local resources (particularly water) to lessen dependence on Earth, a process known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Hence why NASA plans to establish a base of operations around the lunar south pole, a heavily cratered region where water ice exists in abundance in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs).

To harvest water ice and other resources successfully, NASA is investing in technologies that will enable cost-effective sample collection, in-situ testing (with or without astronaut oversight), and real-time data transmission to Earth. One such technology is the Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), a sample acquisition and delivery system designed to collect and transfer lunar regolith to sample containers without reliance on gravity. The LPV is one of 10 payloads that will be flown to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

January 1, 2025January 1, 2025 by Scott Alan Johnston

New Glenn Completes a Hotfire Test. Next… Flight?

New Glenn during successful integrated vehicle hotfire on December 27. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Blue Origin has achieved an important milestone with its New Glenn NG-1 rocket, successfully completing a 24-second hotfire of the rocket’s BE-4 engines in preparation for an expected test flight in the coming days.

December 7, 2024December 7, 2024 by Matt Williams

NASA has Plans for More Cargo Deliveries to the Moon

Early conceptual renderings of cargo variants of human lunar landing systems from NASA’s providers SpaceX, left, and Blue Origin, right. Credit: SpaceX/Blue Origin

Through the Artemis Program, NASA hopes to lay the foundations for a program of “sustained lunar exploration and development.” This will include regular missions to the surface, the creation of infrastructure and habitats, and a long-term human presence. To facilitate this, NASA is teaming up with industry and international partners to develop Human Landing Systems (HLS) that can transport crews to and from the lunar surface and landers that can deliver payloads of equipment, vehicles, and supplies to the lunar surface.

In a recent statement, NASA indicated that it intends to award Blue Origin and SpaceX additional work under their existing contracts to develop landers that will deliver equipment and infrastructure to the lunar surface. NASA also plans to assign demonstration missions to these companies, in addition to design certification reviews, which will validate their concepts. This decision builds on NASA’s earlier request, made in 2023, that the two companies develop cargo versions of their HLS concepts, which are currently in development for the Artemis III, Artemis IV, and Artemis V missions.

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

New Glenn Booster Moves to Launch Complex 36

Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket, heading to Launch Complex 36. Credit: Blue Origin/Dave Limp.

Nine years ago, Blue Origin revealed the plans for their New Glenn rocket, a heavy-lift vehicle with a reusable first stage that would compete with SpaceX for orbital flights. Since that time, SpaceX has launched hundreds of rockets, while Blue Origin has been working mostly in secret on New Glenn. Last week, the company rolled out the first prototype of the first-stage booster to the launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. If all goes well, we could see a late November test on the launch pad.

The test will be an integrated launch vehicle hot-fire which will include the second stage and a stacked payload.

October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 by Matt Williams

Chinese Company is Taking Space Tourism Orders for 2027 Flights

Infographic publicizing Deep Blue Space's first commercial flight, scheduled for 2027. Credit: Deep Blue Space (via Weixin)

China has some bold plans for space research and exploration that will be taking place in the coming decades. This includes doubling the size of their Tiangong space station, sending additional robotic missions to the Moon, and building the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) around the lunar south pole. They also hope to begin sending crewed missions to Mars by 2033, becoming the first national space agency to do so. Not to be left behind in the commercial space sector, China is also looking to create a space tourism industry that offers suborbital flights for customers.

One of the companies offering these services is Jiangsu Deep Blue Aerospace Technology, a private launch company founded in November 2016 by Chinese entrepreneur Huo Liang. On October 24th, at 6:00 pm local time (03:00 am PDT; 06:00 am EDT), during a “Make Friends” Taobao live broadcast, Huo shared the companies’ latest progress on their commercial spacecraft. He also announced the pre-sale of tickets for the first suborbital launch in 2027. The company also posted an infographic with the details of the flight on the Chinese social media platform Weixin (WeChat).

June 4, 2024June 4, 2024 by Allen Versfeld

NASA Wants Heavy Cargo Landers for the Moon

Early conceptual renderings of cargo variants of human lunar landing systems from Blue Origin.

The Artemis Program represents NASA’s effort to return to the Moon. One of the goals of the project is to set up long-term exploration of the Earth’s only natural satellite. This will need much bulkier equipment than what the Apollo astronauts carried though, and this equipment needs to be transported to the Moon’s surface. Blue Origin and SpaceX, contracted by NASA to provide human landing systems, have begun developing vehicles that can safely deliver this equipment from space to the Moon’s surface.

May 20, 2024May 20, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

New Shepard’s 25th Launch Carries Six to the Edge of Space and Back

Sending tourists to space is still relatively novel in the grand scheme of humanity’s journey to the stars. Dennis Tito took the first-ever paid trip in 2001, but since then, plenty of others have journeyed to the heavens. Increasingly, they’ve done so via systems developed by private companies. On Sunday, May 19th, Blue Origin, originally founded by Jeff Bezos to pursue his dreams of humanity’s future in space, successfully launched its seventh crewed mission – this time containing six first-time astronauts, including one that waited a long time for his day in space.

May 3, 2024May 3, 2024 by Alan Boyle

Starlink on Mars? NASA Is Paying SpaceX to Look Into the Idea

Starlink satellites in Earth orbit, under consideration for Mars — An artist's conception shows Starlink satellites in orbit. Credit: SpaceX

NASA has given the go-ahead for SpaceX to work out a plan to adapt its Starlink broadband internet satellites for use in a Martian communication network.

The idea is one of a dozen proposals that have won NASA funding for concept studies that could end up supporting the space agency’s strategy for bringing samples from Mars back to Earth for lab analysis. The proposals were submitted by nine companies — also including Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space, Albedo Space and Redwire Space.

Awardees will be paid $200,000 to $300,000 for their reports, which are due in August. NASA says the studies could lead to future requests for proposals, but it’s not yet making any commitment to follow up.

February 23, 2024February 23, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Finally! Blue Origin’s New Glenn Goes Vertical on the Launch Pad

If you think about space travel and the means of escaping the confines of the Earth then most people, currently, are likely to think about the new Artemis project and the Space Launch System. That’s not the only new development though, Blue Origin have been working on their New Glenn rocket and finally we have got a glimpse of their new offering. The rocket was finally rolled onto the launch pad at Cape Canaveral for testing to commence and we may even see a launch later this year.

December 19, 2023December 19, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Blue Origin’s New Shepard Completes 24th Flight; New Glenn Hopefully on the Horizon

New Shepard’s booster lands on the pad during NS-24 on December 19, 2023. Credit: Blue Origin.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket successfully launched and landed today at the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas, with an uncrewed science and goodwill payload onboard. This was the 24th New Shepard flight and 13th payload mission today from Launch Site One in West Texas.

This marked the first flight since September of 2022 when the uncrewed NS-23’s booster suffered an in-flight anomaly; however, the escape system jettisoned the capsule, which was able to land safely. With the success of NS-24, Blue Origin hopes to soon restart its commercial passenger flights.