Mon, Dec 12, 2011
Announces Commercial Space Firm's April Engine Testing At NASA
Stennis
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver visited Blue Origin in
Kent, WA, Thursday. The company is one of NASA's commercial
partners opening a new chapter in human exploration by developing
innovative systems to reach low Earth orbit as part of the
Commercial Crew Development Program.
"Blue Origin is creating cutting edge technologies to take us to
low Earth orbit," Garver said. "Like all of our commercial
partners, they're making real progress and opening up a new
job-creating segment of the economy that will allow NASA to focus
on our next big challenges -- missions to asteroids and Mars."
Garver also announced Blue Origin has delivered its BE-3 engine
thrust chamber assembly -- the engine's combustion chamber and
nozzle -- to NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where
testing will begin in April 2012. The company is developing a
reusable launch vehicle, designed to take off and land vertically,
and an escape system for its crewed spacecraft. Testing will take
place on the center's E-1 Test Stand. "We're delighted Blue Origin
is taking advantage of Stennis, a center with a long record of
propulsion testing from the dawn of the Space Age, to test the
rocket engines of the future," Garver said.
"We appreciate the opportunity to work with the depth of
expertise and utilize the facilities at Stennis for our engine
testing, and are glad to have the test hardware onsite and ready to
go," said Rob Meyerson, president and program manager at Blue
Origin.
(Pictured (L-R) Blue Origin's Bretton Alexander, Jeff Ashby,
Jeff Bezos, NASA's Lori Garver, Blue Origin's Rob Meyerson,
and Robert Millman. NASA photo.)
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