founded september 2000 ; 16 years ago 2000 09 founder jeff bezos headquarters kent washington united states key people jeff bezos rob meyerson products sub orbital spaceflight rocket engines services rocket engine manufacturing planning for human spaceflight as early as 2018 number of employees 600 1 website www.blueorigin.com blue origin is an american privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company set up by amazon.com founder jeff bezos with its headquarters in kent washington . the company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability . blue origin is employing an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight with each developmental step building on its prior work . the company motto is gradatim ferociter latin for step by step ferociously . blue origin is developing a variety of technologies with a focus on rocket powered vertical takeoff and vertical landing vtvl vehicles for access to suborbital and orbital space . 3 the company s name refers to the blue planet earth as the point of origin . initially focused on sub orbital spaceflight the company has built and flown a testbed of its new shepard spacecraft design at their culberson county texas facility . the first developmental test flight of the new shepard was 29 april 2015 . the uncrewed vehicle flew to its planned test altitude of more than 93.5 km 307 000 ft and achieved a top speed of mach 3 2 284 mph ; 3 675 km h . another flight was performed on 23 november 2015 . the vehicle went just beyond 100 km 330 000 ft altitude and both the space capsule and its rocket booster successfully achieved a soft landing . on 22 january 2016 blue origin re flew the same new shepard booster that launched and landed vertically in november 2015 demonstrating reuse . this time new shepard reached an apogee of 333 582 feet 101.7 km before both capsule and booster returned to earth for recovery and reuse . 4 on 2 april and 19 june 2016 the same new shepard booster flew for its third and fourth flights each time exceeding 330 000 feet in altitude before returning for successful soft landings . 5 6 the first manned test flights are planned to take place in 2017 with the start of commercial service in 2018 . 7 8 in 2014 blue origin moved into the orbital spaceflight technology business as a rocket engine supplier for others . blue origin has a contractual agreement to build a new large rocket engine the be 4 for major us launch system operator united launch alliance ula . ula is also considering the be 3 blue origin s smaller rocket engine used on new shepard for use in a new second stage the advanced cryogenic evolved stage aces which will become the primary upper stage for ula s vulcan orbital launch vehicle in the 2020s . the vulcan is planned to begin orbital flights in 2019 with an existing centaur upper stage and is considering three engines from various manufacturers for the aces stage which would begin flight in 2023 . 9 in september 2015 blue origin announced plans to manufacture and fly its orbital launch vehicle from the florida space coast . contents 1 history 2 facilities 2.1 development facility and headquarters 2.2 florida facilities 2.3 west texas suborbital launch site 3 launch vehicles 3.1 early low altitude flight test platforms 3.1.1 charon 3.1.2 goddard 3.2 new shepard suborbital system 3.3 new glenn orbital launch vehicle 3.4 orbital space systems 3.4.1 orbital launch vehicle 3.4.2 orbital subsystems and earlier development work 3.5 test flights 4 rocket engine development 4.1 be 3 4.1.1 be 3u 4.2 be 4 4.3 pusher escape motor 5 funding 6 collaborations with nasa 7 collaborations with darpa 8 see also 9 references 10 external links history edit blue origin s three vehicles as of late 2012 1 goddard subscale demonstrator flight tested in 2006 2007 2 early subscale version of the suborbital new shepard propulsion module as flown in 2011 ; variations exist to the larger new shepard that actually flew in 2015 3 future space vehicle on top of a future orbital launch vehicle which when stacked is blue origin s future orbital transportation system . 10 blue origin founder jeff bezos has been interested in space from an early age . a profile published in 2013 described a 1982 miami herald interview bezos gave after he was named valedictorian of his high school class . the 18 year old bezos said he wanted ... to build space hotels amusement parks and colonies for 2 million or 3 million people who would be in orbit . the whole idea is to preserve the earth he told the newspaper ... . the goal was to be able to evacuate humans . the planet would become a park . 11 since the founding of blue origin the company has been secretive about its plans . 12 13 the company was formally incorporated in 2000 but its existence only became public in 2003 when bezos started buying land in texas and interested parties followed up on the purchases . this was a topic of some interest in local politics and bezos rapid aggregation of lots under a variety of whimsically named shell companies was called by whom a land grab . 14 in january 2005 bezos told the editor of the van horn advocate that blue origin was developing a sub orbital space vehicle that would take off and land vertically and carry three or more astronauts to the edge of space . 15 the spacecraft would be based on technology like that used for the mcdonnell douglas dc x and derivative dc xa . bezos told reuters in november 2004 that his company hoped to progress to orbital spaceflight . as of january 2005 update the company s website announced that it hoped to establish an enduring human presence in space but the 2007 version wrote instead of aiming patiently and step by step to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system . science fiction author neal stephenson worked part time at blue origin until 15 november 2006 16 and credited blue origin employees for ideas and discussions leading to his 2015 novel seveneves . as of 2006 blue origin discussed plans to place the new shepard in commercial suborbital tourist service in 2010 with flights about once per week . 12 dead link by 2008 the publicized timetable stated that blue origin intended to fly unmanned in 2011 and manned in 2012 . 17 in the event the first developmental test flight of the new shepard occurred on 29 april 2015 . the uncrewed vehicle flew to its planned test altitude of more than 307 000 feet 93 500 meters and achieved a top speed of mach 3 . 18 in a 2011 interview bezos indicated that he founded blue origin to send customers into space by focusing on two objectives to decrease the cost and to increase the safety of human spaceflight . 19 as of july 2014 update bezos had invested over 500 million of his money into blue origin . 20 in september 2014 the company and united launch alliance ula entered into a partnership whereby blue origin would produce a large rocket engine the be 4 for the successor to the atlas v a 10 000 19 000 kilogram class 22 000 42 000 lb launch vehicle that has launched us national security payloads since the early 2000s . the announcement added that blue origin had been working on the engine for three years prior to the public announcement and that the first flight on the new rocket could occur as early as 2019 . 21 in april 2015 blue origin announced that it had completed acceptance testing of the be 3 engine that would power the new shepard space capsule to be used for blue origin suborbital flights . 22 following new shepard s maiden flight blue origin began accepting registration for early access to tickets and pricing information for suborbital spaceflights . in july 2013 the company employed approximately 250 people . 23 by may 2015 they had grown to approximately 400 employees with 350 of those working on engineering manufacturing and business operations in the kent location 24 and approximately 50 in texas supporting the engine test and suborbital test flight facility . 24 in july 2015 nanoracks a provider of services such as payload design and development safety approvals and integration announced a partnership with blue origin to provide standardized payload accommodations for experiments flying on blue origin s new shepard suborbital vehicle . 25 in september 2015 blue origin announced details of an unnamed planned orbital launch vehicle indicating that the first stage would be powered by its be 4 engine currently under development while the second stage would be powered by its recently completed be 3 rocket engine . in addition blue origin announced that it would both manufacture and launch the new rocket from the florida space coast . no payload or gross launch weight was given . bezos noted in interviews that this new launch vehicle would not compete for us government national security missions leaving that market to united launch alliance and spacex . 26 on 23 november 2015 blue origin launched the new shepard rocket to space 27 to an altitude of 329 839 feet or 100.5 kilometers and vertically landed the rocket booster less than 5 feet 1.5 m from the center of the pad . the capsule descended to the ground under parachutes 11 minutes after blasting off and landed safely . this marks the first time a booster has flown to space and returned to earth marking a major step in the pursuit of a fully reusable rocket . 28 this flight validated the vehicle architecture and design . the ring fin shifted the center of pressure aft to help control reentry and descent ; eight large drag brakes deployed and reduced the vehicle s terminal speed to 387 mph 623 km h ; hydraulically actuated fins steered the vehicle through 119 mph 192 km h high altitude crosswinds to a location precisely aligned with and 5 000 ft 1 500 m above the landing pad ; then the highly throttleable be 3 engine re ignited to slow the booster as the landing gear deployed and the vehicle descended the last 100 ft 30 m at 4.4 mph 7.1 km h to touchdown on the pad . 29 on 22 january 2016 blue origin re flew the same new shepard booster that launched and landed vertically in november 2015 demonstrating reuse . this time new shepard reached an apogee of 333 582 feet 101.7 kilometers before both capsule and booster returned to earth for recovery and reuse . on 2 april 2016 the same new shepard booster again flew now for a third time reaching 339 178 feet 103.8 km before again returning successfully . 5 in march 2016 blue origin invited journalists to see the inside of its kent washington headquarters and manufacturing facility for the first time . the company is planning for substantial growth in 2016 as it builds more crew capsules and propulsion modules for the new shepard program and ramps up be 4 engine builds to support full scale development testing . employment is expected to grow to 1 000 in 2016 from 600 in february . 1 bezos also articulated a long term vision for humans in space seeing the potential to move much heavy industry completely off earth leaving our planet zoned strictly for residential and light industrial use with an end state hundreds of years out where millions of people would be living and working in space . 23 by march 2016 manned test flights