SYDNEY \u2014 Blue Origin plans to significantly increase the launch rate of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle and is weighing the addition of new spaceports.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Global Spaceport Alliance\u2019s International Spaceport Forum here Sept. 28, Phil Joyce, senior vice president for New Shepard at Blue Origin, said the company expects to increase its launch cadence to weekly in the next couple of years as it adds vehicles to its fleet.<\/p>\n
That growth, he said, is driven by customer demand. \u201cThe demand is really strong,\u201d Joyce said. \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to see sales every week, every day.\u201d Blue Origin\u2019s backlog currently stretches more than a year.<\/p>\n
The company is now launching nearly monthly, with seven New Shepard flights completed this year. Joyce suggested the next flight is imminent, noting he would leave the International Astronautical Congress here this week early to support it.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin\u2019s goal is to scale up to \u201capproximately weekly\u201d launches, enabled by three new New Shepard vehicles that will enter service starting next year. Those vehicles will join the two currently flying crewed missions.<\/p>\n
Joyce said the new vehicles will feature upgrades for easier and more frequent operations. \u201cWe have a system that was designed years ago that is very expensive to operate. It\u2019s very high maintenance,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have basically upgraded all of the systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes a new version of the BE-3 engine that powers New Shepard. \u201cWe\u2019ve made an investment in the next generation of that engine,\u201d Joyce said, making it \u201cmuch more manufacturable and operable than the engine we have today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new version of New Shepard, he added, will look different than the current one. The differences won\u2019t be major, but he declined to go into details.<\/p>\n
Weekly flights, he noted, would \u201cmax out\u201d the capacity of Blue Origin\u2019s existing facility, Launch Site One in West Texas. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a number of trades about whether to expand that launch site or to look elsewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The company is leaning toward a new site rather than expanding the existing one. \u201cWe think looking elsewhere makes sense from a number of perspectives,\u201d Joyce said. While Blue Origin is not ruling out another U.S. location, the primary focus is international. \u201cWe think there\u2019s possibilities elsewhere around the globe. We think it makes sense to provide this service elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joyce said customers have not explicitly asked to fly from other locations, but convenience could be a factor. \u201cA lot of our target customer base, ultra-high net worth individuals, don\u2019t want to spend a day and a half getting to the destination, so that\u2019s a consideration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin would look for a partner to develop any new launch site. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to find a partner that\u2019s willing to invest,\u201d Joyce said. \u201cWe\u2019re just thinking about where we can get the best partner that adds to the diversity of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY \u2014 Blue Origin plans to significantly increase the launch rate of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":261183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[888,136738,22367,159,16988,783,136574,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-261182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-blue-origin","9":"tag-iac","10":"tag-new-shepard","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sn","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-suborbital","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115281757768239002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}