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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin plans to launch a crewed rocket for the first time in nearly two years.
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The New Shepard rocket was grounded for months after a failed uncrewed launch in September 2022.
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The delay has caused space tourism competitors such as Virgin Galactic to catch up.
Jeff Bezos’ private space company, Blue Origin, recently announced plans to send a crew of six aboard its New Shepard rocket last Sunday.
If successful, this will be the company’s first manned rocket launch in nearly two years. The last crewed flight took place in August 2022 and included Sara Sabry, who was the first Egyptian and Arab woman in space.
This weekend’s scheduled launch will be a major milestone for the company; indicating a return to sub-realistic manned spaceflight and the multi-million dollar revenue that comes with it.
Still, late last year, Jeff Bezos told Lex Fridman on Fridman’s podcast that “Blue Origin needs to be much faster.”
This is why Blue Origin has fallen behind competitors like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX.
Why Blue Origin took 2 years to launch
Blue Origin has been on a roll in 2021 and the first half of 2022, completing about one New Shepard launch every two months – the most in the company’s history.
But then one of its uncrewed rockets failed on September 12, 2022.
About one minute into the flight, Blue Origin lost the first stage booster due to a malfunction in the booster engine. The first phase fell from the skies and landed in the Texas desert. No damage was done to people, buildings or other property.
What was damaged, however, was the momentum of the space body.
After that, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded New Shepard until Blue Origin faced 21 corrective actions, including redesigning some engine components and nozzles to prevent a similar disaster.
The space company went more than 400 days before another launch. That gave one of Blue Origin’s rivals, Virgin Galactic, time to catch up after suffering its own problems in the early 2020s.
Blue Origin’s suborbital business
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are both in the sub-realistic space tourism business. They fly people into sub-real space, about 60 miles up, where they can experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning.
In 2023, Virgin Galactic completed half a dozen crewed launches with its SpaceShipTwo vehicles. Those launches included the company’s first commercial service flight with members of the Italian Air Force in June 2023 and the first flight carrying a private astronaut in August of the same year.
However, the company was founded in February after a small part of its spaceplane’s mothership fell off on Virgin Galactic’s latest space tourism flight. So, this Sunday’s launch may be Blue Origin’s chance to bounce back.
However, it is worth noting the cost of a ticket on a Blue Origin rocket versus a Virgin Galactic space plane when it comes to the competitiveness of the companies.
Prices vary widely, and Blue Origin won’t release what it charges per seat on New Shepard. However, Quartz reported that a seat on Blue Origins’ final crewed launch in August 2022 cost about $1.25 million. That’s nearly three times the cost of a $450,000 seat on Virgin Galactic.
Blue Origin’s orbital dreams and delays
While sub-orbital tourism can be lucrative, the real money is in orbital space flight.
Private companies, including SpaceX (founded in 2002), United Launch Alliance (founded in 2006), and Rocket Lab (founded in 2006), have been doing this for years.
Getting into orbit requires bigger and more powerful rockets, which are more expensive and time-consuming to build. But the biggest advantage is that there is a much bigger market for companies trying to launch a satellite or other technology into orbit than floating around in a spaceship for a few minutes.
Over their lifetimes, SpaceX has launched more than 300 rockets into orbit, ULA has launched 155, and Rocket Lab has launched over 45. By comparison, Blue Origin has not launched a single rocket into orbit – although its New Glenn orbital rocket is scheduled. for its first launch later this year.
Bezos’ company announced that it was building New Glenn in 2016, with an initial launch scheduled for 2020. However, the company suffered a series of difficulties, which delayed the ascent.
These delays have cost millions of dollars in service flights that companies are willing to pay to put their technology into orbit. ULA, for example, says on its website that its rockets have “placed more than $70 billion of satellite assets into orbit.”
That said, Blue Origin has contracts with NASA, the US Space Force, and Amazon for its New Glenn rocket when it’s ready to fly.
Bezos says Blue Origin’s culture isn’t fast enough
Part of Blue Origin’s slow pace is its work culture, which Bezos aims to change.
“We’re going to be really good at taking appropriate technology risk and making those decisions quickly, being bold about those things and having the right culture that supports that,” Bezos told Fridman.
Sunday’s scheduled launch is a step in the right direction for Blue Origin. He may be doing well now, but Bezos wants to kick the company into high gear, telling Fridman that’s one of the reasons he left his role as Amazon CEO.
“I turned the role of CEO, and the main reason I did it was so that I could spend time on Blue Origin, adding some energy, with some urgency. We have to move much faster, and we are going, ” said.
Blue Origin did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
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