posted 06-25-2006 04:27 PM               

Some of the contenders in the commercial spaceflight race are more hush-hush than others - and virtually no one is more secretive than Blue Origin, the space effort funded by Amazon.com's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos. Most of what's known publicly about Blue Origin has come from the rare interview or public-record filing - or from just skulking around.

Fortunately, there's a new public record that provides lots of detail about what Blue Origin is up to - an almost mind-numbing 229 pages' worth. Page for page, it's probably the biggest assortment of Blue's clues yet...

The FAA report sports a picture of a vertical-takeoff rocket on its cover, but Blue Origin says that the vehicle design has not yet been "finalized."

posted 01-03-2007 02:32 PM               

Our first objective is developing New Shepard, a vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle designed to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital journey into space.

On the morning of November 13, 2006, we launched and landed Goddard -- a first development vehicle in the New Shepard program. The launch was both useful and fun. Many friends and family came to watch the launch and support the team.

posted 03-25-2007 02:04 AM               

Goddard Replica
List Price: $11,999,999.00
Price: $9,999,999.00
You Save: $2,000,000.00 (17%)

Product Description
A full sized replica of Goddard. This is a great item which is detailed from the cockpit to the tail. Shown above you can see some of the detail that goes into building these fantastic replicas.

Product Dimensions: 3,600 x 3,600 x 6,000 inches
Shipping Weight: 22,045,855,379,186.5 pounds

Other items from Blue Origin

Space Rock Paperweight
Price: $999,999.00
Only 3 left in stock -- order soon.
Shrapnel fragments of the Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite are always available from 5g - 20g. As with all our smaller samples, these are delivered with full history in an acrylic box. NWA 869 is probably one of the most well-known common chondrites! It has been variously classified from L4 to L6, and often shows brecciation.

G Suit
Price: $999,999.00
These suits are built to our exact specifications with high attention paid to detail. Made from a heavy duty denim twill, this suit was built for wear and tear. It can be worn again and again or placed on display. Truly fantastic for the Collector or Museum. This Space Suit includes all of the features below and Much, Much More!

posted 11-23-2009 10:04 PM               

Update on Opportunities for Research

Blue Origin has selected three unmanned research payloads to fly on the New Shepard suborbital vehicle as a part of Phase 1 of the New Shepard Research Flight Demonstration Program. These payloads were selected from an excellent field of submitted proposals.

The three investigations selected are:

• Three-Dimensional Critical Wetting Experiment in Microgravity. The principal investigator of this effort is Dr. Stephen Collicott, of Purdue University.

• Microgravity Experiment on Dust Environments in Astrophysics (MEDEA). The principal investigator of this effort is Dr. Joshua Colwell, of the University of Central Florida.

• Effective lnterfacial Tension lnduced Convection (EITIC). The principal investigator of this effort is Dr. John Pojman, of Louisiana State University.

These flights are planned to begin in the coming years to demonstrate the integration and operation of scientific experiments into the New Shepard system.

More information on Blue Origin, the New Shepard program, and its research and education applications can be found at blueorigin.com. Further inquiries should be directed to Dr. Alan Stern, Blue Origin’s advisor for Research and Education Mission applications: astern@blueorigin.com.