“We would certainly like to reach orbit and put the Blue Ring Pathfinder into orbit,” Bezos said. “Also, landing the booster would be a gravy. It's kind of insane trying to land the booster. A wiser approach would probably be to land it in the ocean. But we're going for it.'
Blue Origin has built a significant amount of infrastructure on a drone ship, Jaclynthat will wait off the coast until the rocket lands on it. Wasn't Bezos concerned about compromising that hardware?
A look inside the New Glenn rocket factory in Florida.
Credit: Blue Origin
A look inside the New Glenn rocket factory in Florida.
Credit: Blue Origin
“I worry about everything,” he admitted. However, the missile is programmed to deviate from the ship if the electronic equipment on board the vehicle detects anything non-nominal.
And the chance of that happening is of course high.
“We've done a lot of work and a lot of testing, but there are some things that can only be tested in flight,” Bezos said. “And you can't be too confident about these things. You have to keep it real. The reality is that a lot of things go wrong, and you have to accept that if something goes wrong, we will pick ourselves up and get busy for the second flight.”
As for that flight, the company is in a second booster phase that is deep in development. It was on display on the factory floor Sunday and should be ready later this spring, Limp said. There are approximately seven upper stages in the flow as the company works to optimize the plant for production.
A crucial moment for space travel
Bezos founded Blue Origin just over 24 years ago, and the company has developed slowly compared to some of its competitors, most notably SpaceX. However, when Blue Origin has built products, they have been of high quality. Bezos himself flew on the first human mission of the New Shepard spacecraft in 2021, a day he described as the “best” of his life. Of all the people who have ever flown into space, he noted that 7 percent have now done so on a Blue Origin vehicle. And the company's BE-4 rocket engine has performed exceptionally well in flight. But an orbital mission, such a touchstone for launch companies, has so far eluded Bezos.
