Bezos' space rocket project: Could it get a boost from NASA? |
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Bezos' space rocket project: Could it get a boost from NASA?
Jeff Bezos hasn't said much lately about Blue Origin, his pet project to develop a rocket to take paying customers into space. But it seems the Amazon.com CEO may have a shot at working with NASA. The Obama administration is looking to outsource major elements of the U.S. space agency's program -- ferrying cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station -- to private contractors, a move that could benefit "scrappy entrepreneurs" with space travel startups, The Wall Street Journal reports.
NASA's dire budget situation is forcing the government to explore the outsourcing option. The newspaper reports:
The contract winners would use corporate funds to build and test rockets, provide compatible space capsules and then try to recoup those investments by offering commercial-style transportation services to the agency. Essentially, NASA would be paying a set fee for every pound or person transported to orbit.
The article mentions Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), headed by PayPal co-founder and Tesla chairman Elon Musk, and United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed joint venture, as possible contenders. Other space travel startups could also have a shot. That list would presumably include firms like Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
These big-name entrepreneurs, who have likely been personally bankrolling their own space dreams, now could tap into federal government dollars to recoup their investments.
Blue Origin, which has a facility in Kent, Wash., and a launch pad in West Texas, is developing New Shepard, "a vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle designed to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital journey into space," according to the firm's website. The site hasn't been updated for some time, but still lists a bunch of job openings.
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