Blue Origin The test vehicle just after its Blue Origin In addition to an image from last week's test flight, Blue Origin released these pictures from the successful 'short hop' test three months ago: Blue Origin's test vehicle lifts off for a successful Blue Origin The test vehicle hovers just before landing on its pad in West Texas. All four of the companies currently receiving funds say that their spaceships could be ready to carry NASA astronauts to the space station by 2015 or 2016 if NASA provides enough money for development. The next phase of NASA's commercial spaceship development program could involve awards totaling $800 million. SpaceX and Orbital could split up to $3.5 billion in NASA cargo contracts if their tests are successful. A second company, Orbital Sciences Corp., is gearing up for its first test flight. Another test is planned for as early as November, during which a cargo-carrying Dragon would link up with the space station. Last year, SpaceX conducted a successful orbital test flight of its Dragon space capsule, launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The Journal's Andy Pasztor quoted officials as saying that parts of the vehicle were recovered on the ground and are now being analyzed by Blue Origin. The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed sources as saying that officials at NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration were told in advance about the launch and were aware of the failure. 'We're working on the suborbital crew capsule separately, as well as an orbital crew vehicle to support NASA's commercial crew program.'īlue Origin spokeswoman Gwen Griffin declined to comment on the test program, other than to point to Bezos' statement and previously released documents. 'The development vehicle doesn't have a crew capsule - just a close-out fairing instead,' he explained. 24 test involved the suborbital spaceship, rather than the work covered by NASA's agreement with Blue Origin.īezos said the crew capsule was not mounted on the propulsion module for the test flight. Earlier this year, Blue Origin reported that the suborbital capsule was 'undergoing final assembly.' In documents filed with NASA, Blue Origin says it intends to build an orbital space vehicle capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, to be launched initially on an expendable rocket such as United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5.īlue Origin also plans to offer suborbital spaceflights for private passengers, which would involve vertical trips powered by its own reusable propulsion module. Since then, NASA has awarded Blue Origin more than $25 million to develop its space vehicle as well as a 'pusher' launch abort system. The test flight unfolded at Bezos' private spaceport, about 25 miles north of Van Horn, Texas - the same site where Blue Origin's first experimental vehicle was tested in 2006. We're already working on our next development vehicle.' Not the outcome any of us wanted, but we're signed up for this to be hard, and the Blue Origin team is doing an outstanding job. 'A flight instability drove an angle of attack that triggered our range safety system to terminate thrust on the vehicle. 'Three months ago, we successfully flew our second test vehicle in a short hop mission, and then last week we lost the vehicle during a developmental test at Mach 1.2 and an altitude of 45,000 feet,' Bezos wrote.

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