Tag: blue origin

NASA Partners With Blue Origin to Build Spacecraft for Moon Mission

A team led by Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin won a coveted NASA contract to build a spacecraft that will send astronauts to and from the moon‘s surface, NASA’s chief announced on Friday, capping a high-stakes contest.

NASA’s decision will give the agency a second ride to the moon under its Artemis program, after it awarded Elon Musk‘s SpaceX $3 billion (nearly Rs. 24,850 crore) in 2021 to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

Those initial missions using SpaceX’s Starship system are slated for later this decade.

The Blue Origin contract is valued roughly $3.4 billion (nearly Rs. 28,150 crore), NASA’s exploration chief Jim Free said, with Blue Origin privately contributing “well north” of that amount, Blue Origin’s lunar lander head John Couluris said.

“Honored to be on this journey with @NASA to land astronauts on the Moon — this time to stay,” Amazon.com billionaire founder Bezos said in a tweet after the announcement.

Blue Origin plans to build its 52-foot (16-meter) tall Blue Moon lander in a partnership with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, spacecraft software firm Draper, and robotics firm Astrobotic.

SpaceX’s Starship lander is poised to conduct the first two astronaut moon landings under NASA’s Artemis program, sending a pair of astronauts to the lunar surface for each mission. The Blue Moon landing, planned for 2029, is also expected to ferry two astronauts to the surface.

“Our partnership will only add to this golden age of human spaceflight,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. He added that having a second moon lander for the agency’s Artemis mission promotes commercial competition, echoing a trend in recent years that reduces costs for NASA.

Friday’s announcement in Washington was a long-awaited outcome for Blue Origin, which had unsuccessfully had competed for past contracts. The space company overcame a rival bid from Leidos-owned defense contractor Dynetics Inc, the head of a partnership with Northrop Grumman.

Those companies lost out to SpaceX for the 2021 contract, part of an initial moon lander procurement program. NASA under that program said it could pick up to two companies, but blamed budget constraints for only going with SpaceX.

This new contract is a boost for Bezos, who since founding Blue Origin in 2000 has invested billions into the company to compete for high-profile commercial and government space contracts with SpaceX, a dominant force in satellite launches and human spaceflight.

After losing in 2021, Blue Origin unsuccessfully fought to overturn NASA’s decision to ignore its Blue Moon lander, first with a watchdog agency and then in court.

Blue Origin and lawmakers had pressured NASA to award a second lunar lander contract to promote commercial competition and ensure the agency has a backup ride to the moon. NASA in early 2022 announced the program for a second lander contract.

Couluris, who will lead Blue Origin’s development of the moon lander, said Friday’s award was hard fought outcome.

“We’ve been working for some time, and we’re still ready to go,” he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

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Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez reveal space travel plans as they praise each other in first joint interview

Teamwork makes the romance work, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and longtime girlfriend Lauren Sánchez gush in their first interview as a couple.

Bezos, the fourth wealthiest person in the world, and journalist Sanchez shared their mutual adoration during a sit-down interview with CNN.

“We’re really great teammates, and we also have a lot of fun together,” Sánchez said. “And we love each other … We always look at each other and we’re the team.”

Bezos added that “it’s easy.”

“We bring each other energy, we respect each other. So, it’s fun to work together,” the online retail titan said.

Bezos, 58, who also is founder of the spaceflight company Blue Origin, said he hopes to make space travel accessible for everyone — and believes in his lifetime everyone who wants to should be able to travel to space.

“Let me give you an example. The Wright brothers flew this tiny little plane, just a couple hundred feet. And if you told the Wright brothers a hundred years from now, there’s going be a 787 that carries 400 people, they’d laugh,” Bezos said.

“We bring each other energy, we respect each other. So, it’s fun to work together.” Jeff Bezos said.
CNN

Sánchez, 52, an Emmy-award-winning journalist, asserted she plans on flying to space in 2023 on a flight accompanied by a “great group of females.” Sánchez is also a licensed pilot and founder of Black Ops Aviation, the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company.

“I’ve also learned how to fly the helicopter,” Bezos said, prompting a laugh from Sanchez. “And she’s a horrible backseat pilot. She’s terrible!”

Sánchez countered she “realized that when I’m in the back of the helicopter when he’s flying, I just kind of have to look out the window, just kind of enjoy the scenery.

During the interview Jeff Bezos revealed he plans to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime.
CNN

“I’m like, ‘No, no. Pull up. Okay. Okay, Slow down.’ But he’s very good.,” she said.

The normally-private pair also spoke about their typical weekends, admitting Saturday nights consist of watching movies and spending time with their families.

“We can be kind of boring,” Sánchez said. “I would say normal. We have dinner with the kids. That’s always fun and a great conversation. There’s seven between us, so there’s a lot of discussion. And then we watch a movie … by committee. It takes a long time to find that movie.”

“We probably spend more time picking the movie than we need to,” Bezos added.

During the interview Bezos also revealed he plans to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime, admitting he doesn’t yet have a plan on how to unload his billions on issues like climate change.

Lauren Sánchez is an Emmy-award winning journalist and licensed pilot.
Instagram/@laurenwsanchez

He said he plans on taking his time doing so.

“It’s not easy,” Bezos said. “Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.”

“There are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too,” he added. “So you have to think about it carefully and you have to have brilliant people on the team.”

Bezos’ ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, has given away nearly $4 billion to 465 organizations in less than a year and twice that amount over the past two years.

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