On December 3, according to the Wall Street Journal, the orbital launch business of Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Jeff Bezos, has finally improved. The company is nowIt is competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch a manned moon landing mission for NASA in 2028.
New Glenn rocket takes off
After the recent successful launch of the New Glenn rocket and the recovery of the first stage, Blue Origin is planning additional orbital-stage launch missions, includingLunar cargo mission in early 2026.Blue Origin said last month thatThe company is developing a larger, more powerful version of its New Glenn rocket.
CEO reform
The 25-year-old company has long been approaching hardware research and mission development in a methodical and sometimes seemingly slow manner. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp and other executives are looking to capitalize on the current momentum to speed up operations and increase the frequency of launches.
“Blue Origin does give people the impression of working slowly and carefully,” John Couluris, senior vice president leading the company’s lunar program, said at an industry event in May.“We are now transforming into a scaled production company.”
Since taking over as CEO of Blue Origin in December 2023, Limp has been trying to reshape outside expectations for the company's development speed. In January, when the first launch attempt of the New Glenn rocket was delayed, he pushed the launch team to try again faster than originally planned, according to people familiar with the matter.
New Glenn reusable first stage rocket
Blue Origin, which is headquartered in Kent, Washington, slimmed down earlier this year.Approximately 10% of employees were laid off.Limp also reshuffled the company's management, handing more tasks to Ian Richardson, who formerly worked at SpaceX and is now the company's senior vice president of operations.
Battle for the Moon Landing
In order to improve operational agility, Blue Origin is trying to challenge SpaceX. In recent years, SpaceX has established a dominant position in the fields of rocket and satellite operations and manned spaceflight and achieved vigorous development.
Although SpaceX has rich experience in launch and space transportation,But Blue Origin still regards the moon as a key track for overtaking in corners.The company has invested money in technology research and development, with the goal of converting powdery materials on the lunar surface into sustainable resources such as solar cells and transmission lines to lay the foundation for long-term lunar missions. In 2023, Blue Origin also won a contract from NASA to build a larger manned lunar lander for manned lunar landing missions a few years later.
Early next year, the company plans to launch a small cargo lander called Blue Moon Mark 1.Send it to the dusty lunar surface. The mission aims to bring back a large amount of critical data for the company and transport a NASA scientific research equipment to the moon.
In response to a request from NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, Blue Origin also recently outlined to U.S. officials how to get astronauts to the moon faster. SpaceX has also submitted a plan to achieve this goal, saying that its lander is still the fastest way to complete the moon landing mission.
A model of Blue Origin's lunar cargo lander
Many elected officials in Washington want the United States to put astronauts on the moon before China does. According to the Wall Street Journal, President Trump has discussed with Bezos his desire to land a man on the moon during his term. However, NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface, has encountered many setbacks and delays.
Target 2028
According to people familiar with the matter, Blue Origin’s accelerated moon landing plan is a simplified version of the plan, including: based on the cargo lander to be launched early next year,Developing a manned version for transporting astronauts for short-term lunar stays.People following the company's progress say its goal is to carry out a manned moon landing by the end of 2028.
The modified version of the aircraft will use so-called storable propellant. That means Blue Origin won't have to master space refueling technology for this potential mission, which is a difficult task. Currently, Blue Origin is working on this complex technology for another NASA manned mission.
Limp said that the core of the simplified version of the manned lunar landing plan proposed by the company to NASA is to rely on hardware equipment that has been verified or is about to be tested.
“What we’re proposing is not a major change to a completely new design,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s about using technology that we’re already planning to build and have parts orders for.”
A NASA spokesman said the agency will evaluate simplified manned lunar landing plans submitted by Blue Origin and SpaceX, and may also evaluate proposals received from other companies.