Tag: Blue Origin
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With Blue Origin passengers set, suborbital tourism arrives after decades of work
After years of development, suborbital space tourism looks ready to lift off after Virgin Galactic successfully launched its first fully-crewed suborbital mission to space on July 11 following several prior crewed suborbital tests. The Unity 22 mission came just days before Blue Origin is scheduled to make its first passenger suborbital mission no earlier than Tuesday,…
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Blue Origin shares multimillion-dollar spaceship ticket proceeds with 19 charities
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, checks out some of the postcards submitted for spaceflight as part of his nonprofit Club for the Future campaign. (Jeff Bezos via Twitter / 2019) There are only so many postcards you can send to space and back, even if you have $28 million to work…
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USNC-Tech and Blue Origin win a contract for nuclear thermal propulsion design
An artist’s conception shows a spacecraft with a nuclear thermal propulsion system. (NASA Illustration) Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies and its partners are among three teams winning $5 million contracts from NASA and the Department of Energy to develop reactor designs for space-based nuclear thermal propulsion systems. USNC-Tech’s partners include its parent company, Ultra Safe…
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A tale of two spaceships: How Seattle tech titans helped launch suborbital space tours
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity and its mothership (left) are modeled after the SpaceShipOne launch system (right) that was built with Seattle billionaire Paul Allen’s backing. (Photos by Virgin Galactic and Michael Pereckas) The suborbital spaceships built by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceline may look totally different, but financially…
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin fuels feud with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic over suborbital space trips
How serious could the suborbital space race between Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos get? (GeekWire Photos) Jeff Bezos has a longstanding rivalry with SpaceX’s Elon Musk, but now his Blue Origin space venture is upping the ante in its spat with fellow soon-to-be space traveler Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic — and the Twitterverse is not…
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture approaches period of maximum dynamic pressure
Jeff Bezos unveils a mockup of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander in 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) Jeff Bezos may be easing back from his CEO role at Amazon, but now he’s due to feel the heat at Blue Origin, the privately held space venture he created in the year 2000. The next…
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‘Mercury 13’ woman aviator Wally Funk will ride with Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin suborbital space trip
Female aviation pioneer Wally Funk goes wide-eyed when discussing spaceflight with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. (Instagram Video / Jeff Bezos) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has rounded out the foursome for its first crewed suborbital spaceflight with a pioneering woman aviator: Wally Funk, one of the “Mercury 13” women who went through…
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Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson plans July spaceflight to upstage Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin trip
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson says he’ll be Astronaut 001 on the July flight. (Virgin Galactic Photo) The billionaire space race is on: Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson is on the crew for the next test flight of the company’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, which is scheduled to cross the 50-mile space frontier as early as…
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Leave Jeff Bezos in space? Way-out petitions attract more than 100,000 signatures
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, has a laugh during a 2020 trip to India. (Jeff Bezos via Twitter) Between an upsurge in antitrust talk and questions about worker turnover, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has plenty to worry about here on Earth. His plans to take a suborbital space ride next month on…
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Space nuclear power is nearing critical mass as the final frontier’s next frontier
An artist’s conception shows a spacecraft firing up its nuclear thermal propulsion system. (DARPA Illlustration) The idea of putting nukes in space may sound like a national security nightmare, but the right kind of nukes are likely to be a must-have for long-term space exploration. At least that’s the way a panel of experts at…