There's no word yet on who else might fill the six-person capsule during the 10-minute flight that will take its passengers to an altitude of about 105 kilometres, just beyond the edge of space, and then return to Earth without going into orbit. The Bezos brothers will launch from a remote location in West Texas alongside the winner of an online charity auction. He said that will make the journey more meaningful.īlue Origin's debut flight with people aboard - after 15 successful test flights of its reusable New Shepard rockets - will take place on July 20, a date selected because it is the 52nd anniversary of the first moon landing by Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The 57-year-old Amazon founder and richest person in the world by Forbes's estimate will become the first person in the world to ride his own rocket to space.īezos announced his intentions Monday and said he will share the adventure with his younger brother and best friend, Mark, an investor and volunteer firefighter. "With today's announcement, we are making an additional investment in the infrastructure that will pave the way to land the first humans on Mars," Nelson said Friday.Outdoing his fellow billionaires in daredevilry, Jeff Bezos will blast into space next month when his Blue Origin company makes its first flight with a crew. ![]() NASA revised that contract in November 2022 to allow a modification that funneled another $1.15 billion to SpaceX to continue the development of Starship and ordered services to ferry astronauts to the moon for Artemis IV.Īt the same time, NASA opened up the "Sustaining Lunar Development" lane to create more opportunities for companies besides SpaceX to compete for a human landing services contract for the Artemis V mission and beyond. With that initial contract, SpaceX plans complete an uncrewed Starship lunar landing demonstration followed by a crewed landing delivering two astronauts to the moon's surface as a part of NASA's Artemis III mission slated for before 2030. ![]() "SpaceX is working hard on their Starship lander, which will deliver the first woman and the next man to the surface." "SpaceX is making good progress," Nelson said. NASA's selection was ultimately upheld when a federal judge denied Blue Origin's protest of the multibillion-dollar moon lander contract. That was challenged by Blue Origin with a federal lawsuit after the agency said budget constraints limited the selection to just one company. In 2021, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract as the sole commercial partner to ferry Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface in its Starship vehicle. "Blue Origin is contributing well north of $3.4 billion as part of this effort," Couluris said without revealing more specifics. Success or failure? SpaceX's Starship launch confuses internet, but truth is clearĪ substantial Blue Origin investment supplements the $3.4 billion fixed-price contract awarded by NASA Friday. View Gallery: Photos: NASA launches historic Artemis I mission from Kennedy Space Center ![]() "Before that, we have a number of test launches and landings that we'll be we'll be releasing here soon." ![]() "We'll be testing our full lander systems and the full architecture prior to any astronauts entering the vehicle and that will be roughly one year prior," John Couluris, Blue Origin vice president of lunar transportation, said Friday. A substantial redesign to accommodate more cargo and crew has been added since then. Once Orion docks with Gateway, two astronauts will transfer to Blue Origin’s human landing system for about a weeklong trip to the moon’s south pole region where they will conduct science and exploration activities," NASA said in a statement.īlue Origin, owned and personally funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world's richest person, initially debuted plans for its Blue Moon lander in 2019. "For the Artemis V mission, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket will launch four astronauts to lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft. International Space Station: NASA, international partners agree on cooperation on the ISS through 2028īlue Origin's reusable lander called "Blue Moon" was selected deliver astronauts to the lunar surface for the agency's Artemis V mission slated for no earlier than 2029.
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