Advanced Television

Blue Origin

Buyers emerge for ULA

The United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint-venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin (L-M), is up for sale. The rocket builder now has potential bidders emerging. The three names currently being reported on include a private equity business, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket company and an unnamed aerospace firm which is said to be well-capitalised. The […]

November 16, 2023

Blue Origin develops Blue Ring

Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-backed reusable rocket business, in addition to his Project Kuiper broadband scheme and its rocket tourism activity, is developing Blue Ring. It is described as a “multi-use platform for Earth orbit and beyond”. Blue Ring will be an orbiting platform that can host, deploy and re-fuel satellites. Blue Ring is a […]

October 18, 2023By Chris Forrester

Blue Origin to exit Orbital Reef space station

Orbital Reef is – or was designed to be – a privately-funded space station. Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-backed rocket business and Sierra Nevada Space are likely to end the corporate partnership they formed to help fund the space station. The concept was for an orbiting ‘business park in space’ and operating in low Earth […]

October 6, 2023

Blue Origin can soon fly again

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket company can start flying its New Shepard vehicle again once it corrects the Federal Aviation Authority’s list of problems on a rocket flight that failed on September 12th 2022. The FAA stated: “We have closed the Blue Origin New Shepard mishap investigation. The final report cites multiple root causes of […]

September 29, 2023

Blue Origin boss steps down

Bob Smith, CEO at the Amazon/Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket company, is stepping down. He’ll stay in post for the time being in what seem to be a harmonious transfer to Dave Limp who has run Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband division. Blue Origin has suffered some considerable challenges over the past few years and the consensus […]

September 26, 2023By Chris Forrester

Blue Origin has 11,000 employees

Jeff Bezos-backed rocket company, Blue Origin, now employs almost 11,000 staff according to The Wall Street Journal. The business has multiple missions. There’s a space tourism portion, but the larger effort is looking at launching Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband satellites into orbit. A Blue Origin ‘New Shepard’ passenger carrying rocket launched Star Trek actor William […]

August 12, 2023

Blue Origin wants international launch sites

The Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket business would like additional international business and including launch facilities, additional to its existing sites in Texas, Florida and Alabama. Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith, in an interview with the FT, said they were also looking for non-US acquisitions in manufacturing and software in order to scale up its […]

July 4, 2023

Blue Origin gets FCC launch licence

The Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket business has received a ‘special temporary authority’ licence from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the next launch of its New Shepard rocket variant. Blue Origin Texas LLC applied for its licence on March 23rd. The FCC has licenced Blue Origin for “one suborbital flight of the launch system […]

March 27, 2023By Chris Forrester

SpaceX: “We can boost launch capacity”

SpaceX, already the world’s busiest supplier of rocket launch capacity, says it can do more and could increase its launch frequency. A series of expert panels at the recent Satellite 2023 event in Washington, DC, talked about anticipated shortages in launch capacity especially in the 2024-2027 time frame. The decision by the Jeff Bezos-backed Project […]

March 21, 2023

Amazon’s Kuiper facing “constraints”

Imagine, you are one of the richest individuals on the planet and you have a broadband-by-satellite scheme (Project Kuiper) that could be highly competitive. But – and there are quite a few ‘buts’ – you don’t have the rockets to get them into space… Indeed, Amazon’s executive chairman Jeff Bezos has poured millions into Blue […]

October 31, 2022