Blue Origin is developing a name for itself in the space industry. The Jeff Bezos-owned commercial space travel company is developing rockets both for space tourism and for low-Earth orbit satellite launches, which Bezos hopes will someday blast off into a profitable venture.
Image Credit: Blue Origin
While one of Blue Origin’s closest competitors, SpaceX, already has a name for itself in the space community because they both resupply NASA astronauts on the International Space Station and launch commercial satellites into orbit around the Earth, Blue Origin strives to become another viable option, offering competition in the industry.
SpaceX also appears to be accepting commercial space tourists for the right amount of money, made evident by a recent announcement that two anonymous space tourists had signed up for a Dragon capsule launch in 2018, but their Dragon capsule isn’t quite as luxurious as the one Blue Origin recently announced and showed off in the company’s latest renderings.
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The Blue Origin-branded capsule is not only spacy and cozy-looking inside, but it has massive windows that dwarf those on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which will undoubtedly offer a much better viewing experience for space tourists.
Safety is also a number-one priority for the company, as it has been working on a special state-of-the-art emergency booster that gets the tourist capsule away from the first stage rocket in case of any catastrophic emergencies. It then lands safely back on Earth with the help of parachutes.
Unlike SpaceX, which saw numerous glitches in launching and landing reusable Falcon 9 rockets, Blue Origin has a particularly spotless record in terms of launching and landing its reusable New Shepard rocket. Blue Origin also has plans to develop a new, larger rocket dubbed New Glenn, which brings the company up to speed with SpaceX’s deep space-penetrating rockets.
Bezos isn’t sparing any necessary expenditure to make Blue Origin an appealing name for potential future space tourists, and according to several sources, he’s even selling up to $1 billion worth of Amazon stock per year to finance his endeavors encompassing the commercial space company.
As Blue Origin and SpaceX appear to be direct competitors in the upcoming space tourism industry, it should be very interesting to watch and see who comes out on top.
Source: New York Times
