MSNBC: A super secretive billionaire would-be rocketeer cracks the door a little more – and one glimpses real science
Many of us on the science beat have bit time and again on entrepreneurial efforts to build cheap space ships that aim to usher in a new and genuine space age for the rest of us. Most come to nothing, and those that don’t start getting pricy. But maybe, huh? And for those of us who follow these things, one of the big kahunas who has eluded press inquiry most successfully is the Blue Origin project based near Seattle with testing grounds in Texas. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has nurtured it for years while providing hardly any detail.
This morning a few outlets, most prominently MSNBC thanks to the CosmicLog site with Alan Boyle at the helm, brings word that the venture has announced selection of three research payloads for what could be its niche-market entry into full-on commercial space exploration. Its first rockets will be suborbital, vertical take-off and landing jobs, rather reminiscent of Pete Conrad’s old DC-X thing that flew over New Mexico in the 1990s. As reporteda year or two ago by several outlets it calls the prototype, now making test flights, New Shepard. Boyle’s piece includes some context, including a list of some other small companies hoping to do roughly the same thing.
Other stories:
- Orlando Business Journal: UCF experiment to fly on new rocket ship;
- Space.com – Leonard David: Jeff Bezos’s Secretive Rocket Program Picks Science Projects ;
Grist for the Mill:
Blue Origin Opportunities for Research announcement ;
Univ. Central Florida Press Release ;
- Charlie Petit
