Now would be a good time for Bezos to put those billionaire connections to use.Īnd there ought to be plenty of customers who are interested. But it’s going to need a steady stream of missions to justify New Glenn’s existence and start making money. Right now, Blue Origin has a handful of contracts to launch commercial satellites. But what he could do is spend more time going after customers. The company is targeting this year for New Glenn’s inaugural launch.Īgain, Bezos can’t do anything to speed up that timetable. Like the Falcon Heavy, New Glenn is a heavy-lift rocket with a reusable first-stage booster, intended to send satellites into orbit. If Blue Origin wants to dominate the space tourism market, now is as good a time as any. But the same way Musk is an evangelist for generating interest in SpaceX, Bezos could play the same role by being the salesman he is, getting people interested in booking tickets to space and publicizing the company’s work more aggressively. Everyone’s waiting patiently to see if 2021 is the golden year, but that looks pretty unlikely at the moment.īezos himself can’t do anything to speed up testing and development of New Shepard and get it ready for human spaceflight. And the pandemic put a stop to most of the company’s launch activities in 2020. The company was hoping for a crewed New Shepard flight in 2019. Having Bezos more involved in the day-to-day could be a big asset in securing those customers and inking contracts that really put the company on the map.
Several new projects under way could position the company to finally start competing directly with SpaceX and others, and generate steady revenue from a regular line of customers (no more selling off Amazon stock to fund it). And it’s already got plans to send a probe to Venus in a few years.īlue Origin could catch up, though.
In 18 missions, Electron has delivered more satellites into space than Blue Origin. Rocket Lab, for instance, has nearly perfected the design of its lightweight Electron rocket, which features 3D-printed engines that are cheaper and faster to make. Even smaller companies can boast more business than Blue Origin. Its Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket today. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket (reusable, and capable of going all the way into orbit) has flown more than 100 missions, with a remarkable track record of success since 2016. But for the most part, Blue Origin is falling behind its peers.
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