AST SpaceMobile’s next BlueBird satellite (#7/FM2) launch will be aboard a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket. There had been speculation that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would be used, but it seems that SpaceX will be used for a slightly later Q1 flight and launch in February. The New Glenn launch date will be “no […]

Last week saw a successful launch and landing of the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. Blue Origin’s CEO is Dave Limp and he says that his firm is building enough hardware for “well above” a dozen flights next year with an upper limit of 24 launches. Currently Blue Origin is building one rocket […]

After a considerable delay and much-promised delivery dates, India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has confirmed that AST SpaceMobile’s (AST) FM1 (aka BlueBird 6) will definitely launch during the first week of December. It is quite possible that BlueBird 7 (aka FM2) could also launch in December, although there is considerable uncertainty as to who will […]

A filing made to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by a staffer at rocket company Blue Origin, which concerns radio communications with the company’s New Glenn rocket’s launch (NG-2), says that it will not happen before July 1st. It had been expected to launch late spring. The launch delay affects Amazon’s own Project Kuiper satellite […]

Blue Origin, the rocket launch business backed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is laying off 10 per cent of its workforce. Some 1,400 staff will go. Positions in engineering, R&D, and programme/project management are being eliminated, and layers of management are being thinned. In a memo to staff, CEO Dave Limp said: “Over the last few […]

January 6th should see the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin-built New Glenn recoverable rocket make its debut flight. The business received its Commercial Space Transportation Licence from the Federal Aviation Administration on December 27th. The New Glenn rocket had a successful test engine firing and ‘wet’ dress rehearsal on the same day. Blue Origin has several […]

An update from AST SpaceMobile (AST) on November 14th supplied many hard facts as to the satellite operator’s plans. New satellite launches, added to the five already in orbit, will potentially eliminate the planet’s ‘dead spots’ for cellular users. Subsequently, a major bank report has endorsed AST’s prospects as the world’s first global cellular network. […]

Up until now it is Elon Musk’s SpaceX that has added snappy names to its floating landing vessels. Musk’s fleet is named ‘Just Read the Instructions’, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ and ‘Of Course I Still Love You’. Now The Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket business is getting into the act. For example, Blue Origin’s New […]

It is always fun going back a few years and Pierre Lionnet, director of research at ASD Eurospace, has done exactly that and gone back to Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) forecasts for the space industry as they saw things in 2015. Lionnet is too polite to say the forecasts were rubbish, but points out that […]

A complaint has been filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court by Craig Stoker, who was previously Blue Origin’s programme manager on their BE-4 rocket engine development, and alleging concerns over workplace safety at the Jeff Bezos-backed business. Stoker further alleges that Blue Origin had a “hostile work environment” and that there were “ethical violations” […]