{"id":18321,"date":"2018-10-10T20:22:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-resets-schedule-first-crew-to-space-in-2019-first-orbital-launch-in-2021\/"},"modified":"2018-10-10T20:22:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:22:55","slug":"blue-origin-resets-schedule-first-crew-to-space-in-2019-first-orbital-launch-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-resets-schedule-first-crew-to-space-in-2019-first-orbital-launch-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin resets schedule: First crew to space in 2019, first orbital launch in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_454072\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-454072\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-454072\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-bobsmith2-630x501.jpg\" alt=\"Bue Origin CEO Bob Smith\" width=\"630\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-bobsmith2-630x501.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-bobsmith2-768x611.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/181010-bobsmith2-1260x1002.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-454072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith shows a video of a BE-4 rocket engine firing during the Aerospace Futures Alliance Summit. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>LYNNWOOD, Wash.&nbsp;\u2014 Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is now planning to send its first crew on a suborbital space trip during the first half of 2019, and launch its first orbital-class New Glenn rocket in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the word from Bob Smith, CEO of the Kent, Wash.-based company, who spoke here today at the Aerospace Futures Alliance Summit.<\/p>\n<p>The schedule represents a slight shift to the right for Blue Origin\u2019s development plan, which had been targeting this year for the first crewed flight of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship and 2020 for New Glenn\u2019s first flight. That\u2019s not totally unexpected, considering the challenges involved.<\/p>\n<p>Even that schedule is ambitious. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work on our hands,\u201d Smith told the audience.<\/p>\n<h3>Suborbital trips on New Shepard<\/h3>\n<p>The New Shepard spacecraft has undergone nine uncrewed test flights, most recently in July, at Blue Origin\u2019s suborbital launch facility in West Texas. It\u2019s already been flying scientific payloads, plus a test dummy nicknamed Mannequin Skywalker.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin\u2019s plan calls for its own employees to get on board for the first crewed flights. For what it\u2019s worth, the company already has former space shuttle astronauts on its payroll, including Nicholas Patrick and Jeff Ashby, and they\u2019re likely to be prime candidates for the first flight. When we asked Smith whether the first crew has been selected, he replied, \u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith stuck to Blue Origin\u2019s position that the ticket price for suborbital space trips would not be announced until after the beginning of those crewed test flights. \u201cI can honestly say to everybody, I don\u2019t know what the price is, because we really honestly haven\u2019t talked about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Mission 9: Safe Escape In Any Phase Of Flight\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aFY_0vIIzQE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>How many test flights will be flown before paying passengers get on board? \u201cWe don\u2019t know what that is, and it\u2019s going to be based similar on what our test cadence relative to even getting to that first flight,\u201d Smith replied.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, has said the test program for his crewed SpaceShipTwo rocket plane is \u201cwithin weeks, not months\u201d of crossing what his company sees as the 50-mile boundary of outer space. (That U.S. Air Force standard is lower than the internationally recognized 62-mile, 100-kilometer Karman Line for spaceflight.) Virgin Galactic\u2019s customers, who are paying as much as $250,000 for a suborbital trip, should follow \u201cin months, not years,\u201d Branson said.<\/p>\n<p>Smith said Blue Origin felt no pressure to match Virgin Galactic in the space tourism race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to fly when we\u2019re safe, and we\u2019re ready, and I think that\u2019s always going to be the case,\u201d he said. \u201cAnything that goes on elsewhere \u2026 we get inspired by competition, we don\u2019t necessarily look toward something that we need to go \u2018beat\u2019 them on.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Orbital launches on New Glenn<\/h3>\n<p>As for the reusable New Glenn rocket, Smith said work was proceeding on the different elements of the project, ranging from the rocket factory that\u2019s been built in Florida to the BE-4 rocket engines that are currently being manufactured in Kent and tested in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, United Launch Alliance announced that it would use Blue Origin\u2019s BE-4 engine to power the first stage of its next-generation Vulcan rocket. That will open the way for Blue Origin to boost BE-4 production at a new engine factory in Huntsville, Ala.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin is also getting Cape Canaveral\u2019s Launch Complex 36 ready to serve for its orbital liftoffs, and is planning to build a rocket testing and refurbishment center nearby.<\/p>\n<p>Smith confirmed that the Stena Freighter, an 18-year-old, 600-foot-long ship that\u2019s currently on its way from Spain to Florida, would serve as the landing ship for Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn first-stage boosters.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BTEhohh6eYk<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin\u2019s flight profile calls for the ship to be moving while the booster maneuvers itself through descent and landing, which is a different twist on the at-sea rocket landing procedure pioneered by SpaceX. Smith said the moving ship would increase stability at sea and contribute to New Glenn\u2019s projected 95 percent weather reliability for launches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Orlando Airport\u2019s open, we\u2019re going to go fly,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>In recent months, aerospace sources have seen signs that Blue Origin is facing such a rapid ramp-up that its original plan to launch the first New Glenn rocket in 2020 seemed likely to slip. Smith\u2019s repeated references to the 2021 time frame for New Glenn\u2019s debut served as confirmation of the schedule change.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin has already signed up several satellite companies for launches in the early 2020s, but shifting the debut test launch to the right isn\u2019t expected to have a direct effect on those launch plans.<\/p>\n<p>The company is also offering New Glenn as an option for future national security launches, which are currently conducted exclusively by United Launch Alliance and SpaceX. The Air Force is currently considering which launch providers will win its go-ahead. \u201cThat announcement is imminent,\u201d Smith said. \u201cVery, very imminent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update for 6 p.m. PT Oct. 10:<\/strong> Just a few hours after Smith spoke, the Air Force made its announcement on supporting future rockets for national security launches, with up to $500 million set aside for Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket. Also, when I counted up New Shepard\u2019s test flights, I forgot about the one in July. That reference has been corrected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith shows a video of a BE-4 rocket engine firing during the Aerospace Futures Alliance Summit. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) LYNNWOOD, Wash.&nbsp;\u2014 Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is now planning to send its first crew on a suborbital space trip during the first half [&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":[509,510,1250,493],"class_list":["post-18321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-new-glenn","tag-new-shepard","tag-space-tourism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321"}],"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=18321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}