Founded in 2000 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin has grown from a small, secretive startup to one of the key players in the new era of private space exploration. The company's mission is centered on the idea that humanity should develop the capability to live and work in space, in order to preserve Earth and open up the potential for further exploration and settlement.
More than two decades on, Blue Origin has completed 27 flights and has begun announcing details for its 28th. While the launch date hasn't been announced yet, it's likely coming soon and through this story, you'll be among the first to know.
Blue Origin was established in Kent, Washington, by Jeff Bezos, with the goal of reducing the cost of space travel and making space more accessible. Unlike its competitors, Blue Origin initially operated with a high degree of secrecy, keeping its activities under wraps as it worked on developing its technologies.
The company's name itself, "Blue Origin", reflects Bezos's view of Earth as a fragile "blue" planet that humanity should protect while expanding into the stars. His long-term vision involved creating reusable rockets, reducing the cost of space travel, and eventually allowing people to live and work in space.
During this early period, Blue Origin made incremental progress on its goals, focusing on testing technologies for vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL), as well as reusable rockets.
One of the first major public milestones for Blue Origin came in 2015 with the successful test flight of its New Shepard rocket. Named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space, this suborbital vehicle was designed to carry both payloads and passengers into space and return them safely to Earth. The New Shepard was developed to be fully reusable, with a rocket booster that could return to Earth and land vertically, much like SpaceX's Falcon 9.
In 2015, Blue Origin successfully completed its first suborbital flight test; the next year New Shepard performed a series of successful tests, including one in which the booster successfully returned to Earth and landed after reaching suborbital space.
By late 2020, Blue Origin had completed a series of tests in preparation for carrying human passengers, including a launch with a dummy test passenger aboard to simulate real crewed flights.
In July 2021, days after Virgin Galactic made history with its first crewed flight, Blue Origin did the same. Aboard the historic flight were Jeff Bezos himself; Jeff's brother Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer and one of the "Mercury 13" women who trained to be astronauts in the 1960s; and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old physics student from the Netherlands, who became the youngest person to fly to space
This flight reached an altitude of 107 kilometers (66 miles), crossing the Kármán line, the boundary of space. This flight was not only a significant achievement for Blue Origin but also marked a milestone for the growing space tourism industry.
In recent years, Blue Origin has continued to expand its footprint in the space industry. The company has engaged in numerous partnerships with NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and other commercial entities. Notably, Blue Origin has won contracts for launching payloads for NASA's Artemis program, and it continues to make significant advances in reusable space technologies.
Blue Origin has completed eight crewed flights in total, with notable passengers including William Shatner and Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of Alan Shepard.
Blue Origin has not announced the date of their next launch, which will be the 28th mission with New Shepard, NS-28. As of November 2024, they did announce the passenger manifest, which will include:
Blue Origin has come a long way since its founding in 2000, making substantial progress in the field of space exploration, particularly with its focus on reusable rocket technology. I'll be sure to provide updates when the company releases a launch window that will finally send "The Space Gal" to space.