Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is among six companies that will be producing studies for NASA looking at low-cost ways to use orbital transfer vehicles to deliver spacecraft to hard-to-reach orbits for the space agency.
The awards will support nine studies in all, with a maximum total value of about $1.4 million, NASA said today.
“With the increasing maturity of commercial space delivery capabilities, we’re asking companies to demonstrate how they can meet NASA’s need for multi-spacecraft and multi-orbit delivery to difficult-to-reach orbits beyond current launch service offerings,” Joe Dant, orbital transfer vehicle strategic initiative owner for the Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, said in a news release. “This will increase unique science capability and lower the agency’s overall mission costs.”
Blue Origin will conduct two studies — one that focuses on potential NASA applications for its Blue Ring multi-mission space mobility platform, and another that focuses on how the upper stage of its New Glenn rocket could be used.
The first New Glenn launch sent a test payload for the Blue Ring program into orbit in January. The second New Glenn launch is due to put twin orbiters on a path to Mars for NASA’s ESCAPADE mission later this year. Blue Origin’s first full-scale Blue Ring spacecraft is currently scheduled for launch in 2026, with Scout Space’s Owl space domain sensors among the payloads.
The other companies involved in NASA’s studies are:
- Texas-based Arrow Science and Technology, which will partner with Quantum Space to study applications for Quantum’s Ranger spacecraft.
- Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which will focus on potential uses for its line of Elytra orbital vehicles. Firefly acquired Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc. in 2023, and its Elytra vehicles draw upon the heritage of Spaceflight’s Sherpa vehicles.
- California-based Impulse Space, which will produce two studies focusing on its highly maneuverable Mira spacecraft and its high-energy Helios kick stage.
- California-based Rocket Lab USA, with one study focusing on the upper stage of its Neutron rocket, and the other focusing on a long-life orbital transfer vehicle based on its Explorer spacecraft.
- Colorado-based United Launch Alliance, which will assess the cislunar mission capabilities of an extended-duration Centaur V upper stage.
The studies are due to be complete by mid-September, and NASA will incorporate the findings into its plans for future space missions.
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