{"id":17428,"date":"2022-01-26T21:17:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T13:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-venture-agrees-to-buy-honeybee-robotics-a-pioneer-in-rover-hardware\/"},"modified":"2022-01-26T21:17:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T13:17:37","slug":"jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-venture-agrees-to-buy-honeybee-robotics-a-pioneer-in-rover-hardware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-venture-agrees-to-buy-honeybee-robotics-a-pioneer-in-rover-hardware\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture agrees to buy Honeybee Robotics, a pioneer in rover hardware"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"390\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220126-honeybee-630x390.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-670919\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220126-honeybee-630x390.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220126-honeybee-768x475.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220126-honeybee.jpg 934w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>Honeybee Robotics co-founder Steve Gorevan stands in front of a rover model that started out as an earthbound twin of NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover and eventually became the Perseverance rover on Mars. (Honeybee Robotics Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture has struck a deal to acquire Honeybee Robotics, a trailblazer in the business of building specialized tools for space probes.<\/p>\n<p>The deal with Honeybee\u2019s parent organization, Ensign-Bickford Industries, is expected to close in mid-February. Financial terms were not disclosed. EBI has owned Honeybee since 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Honeybee said it would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Bezos\u2019 privately held company \u2014 which is headquartered in Kent, Wash. \u2014 but would continue with \u201cbusiness as usual,\u201d with major operations based in Colorado and California.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1983, Honeybee has delivered more than 1,000 advanced projects to customers in fields ranging from defense robotics and medical devices to mining and Mars exploration. It built the rock abrasion tools for NASA\u2019s Opportunity and Spirit rovers on Mars, and the drills for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.<\/p>\n<p>In the years ahead, Honeybee\u2019s robotic sampling hardware is due to be flown to the moon in support of NASA\u2019s Artemis program \u2014 and to Titan, a smog-covered moon of Saturn, as part of the Dragonfly mission.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DrACO - The Dragonfly Sample Acquisition and Delivery System for Titan\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XbglDa3rzBk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been building Honeybee\u2019s capabilities and brand for almost 40 years,\u201d company president Kiel Davis said in a news release.&nbsp;\u201cJoining Blue Origin is a major step forward for us.&nbsp;\u2026 With Blue Origin we look forward to further expanding our&nbsp;capacity&nbsp;to meet the most exciting challenges in next-generation space transportation, space mobility, space destinations, and planetary science and exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In recent months, Blue Origin has been in the spotlight primarily because of its New Shepard suborbital space trips, but it\u2019s also working on its orbital-class New Glenn rocket as well as a commercial space station and projects that target destinations beyond Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Blue Origin lost out to SpaceX in a competition for a multibillion-dollar lunar lander contract from NASA, but the company is continuing to work on its design in hopes of winning follow-up contracts. Honeybee has been developing the crane system for Blue Origin\u2019s lander as a partner in the effort. <\/p>\n<p>If the deal goes through as expected, that partnership will be even closer as Blue Origin sets its sights on the moon and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re beyond excited to welcome Honeybee Robotics to our team,\u201d said Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of Advanced Development Programs for Blue Origin. \u201cWe know Honeybee\u2019s&nbsp;leadership. We value the company\u2019s brand, talent, unique&nbsp;expertise&nbsp;and product lines. And we know that together we will make bold things possible.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Honeybee Robotics co-founder Steve Gorevan stands in front of a rover model that started out as an earthbound twin of NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover and eventually became the Perseverance rover on Mars. (Honeybee Robotics Photo) Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture has struck a deal to acquire Honeybee Robotics, a trailblazer in the business of building [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,4573,367],"class_list":["post-17428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-honeybee-robotics","tag-mars"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}