Blue Origin Added To List Of Companies Flying To The Edge Of Space

NASA has selected Blue Origin, LLC, in Van Horn, Texas, to integrate and fly technology payloads near the boundary of space on their New Shepard suborbital spacecraft in support of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.

This is the sixth company selected for an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract under the Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle (sRLV) Flight and Payload Integration Services solicitation, which has a combined value not to exceed $45 million.

Starting June 1, the contract with Blue Origin will compete with the other program companies for task orders to deliver payload integration and flight services. All task orders must be initiated within the contract's three-year performance period.

“We are pleased to have Blue Origin join our cadre of Flight Opportunities service providers,” said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington. “Adding additional flight providers enables NASA and the broader aerospace community to demonstrate and transition space technologies, developing new capabilities faster and, potentially, at lower cost.”

This contract is a continuation of contracts awarded in 2014 and 2015, providing commercial capabilities using proven flight systems. The contract allows for ramping on of new vendors and the addition of new flight profiles on at least an annual basis, as determined by the government’s requirements.

Blue Origin will join the following firms currently under contract:

• Masten Space Systems, Inc., Mojave, California
• Near Space Corporation, Tillamook, Oregon
• UP Aerospace, Inc., Littleton, Colorado
• Virgin Galactic, LLC, New York
• World View Enterprises, Inc., Tucson, Arizona

Through the Flight Opportunities Program, STMD selects promising technologies from industry, academia and government, and tests them on commercial launch vehicles. The Flight Opportunities Program is funded by STMD, and managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. STMD is responsible for developing the crosscutting, pioneering, new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin is clearing land for its new assembly facility on land at the Kennedy Space Center Exploration Park, according to a report from Florida Today. The company says a new orbital rocket could be built there and ready for launch at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by the end of the decade.

(Image provided with NASA news release)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flight_opportunities/index.html