Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin inks rocket deal with Boeing, Lockheed Martin
Blue Origin, the space exploration company run by Jeff Bezos, has won a contract to supply engines for rockets launching US military and spy satellites into orbit.
The bespoke BE-4 engine will power the Vulcan rocket when it takes its maiden voyage in 2020.
The sum of the deal between Blue Origins and Vulcan maker United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin is thought to be worth billions, according to the Wall Street Journal.
United Launch Alliance currently relies on Russian-made engines and had been on the market for an American-made product following geopolitical tensions.
The deal follows a drastic change made by President Donald Trump to the US' national defence strategy in which cheaper high technology companies, often with little military background, are preferable over experienced Pentagon contractors.
The BE-4 was initially designed to power New Glenn, Blue Origins’ heavy launcher that is still under development in its Alabama facility. It was designed with the intention of sending satellites into space, which Bezos hopes will finance his space tourism plans on a plush space shuttle named New Shepard. Bezos has previously revealed he spends around $1billion of his own fortune on the privately financed Blue Origins.
The announcement cements its position as a viable contender in the race to space and will boost Bezos’ chances of competing with fellow billionaire and tech mogul, Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX has secured multi-million contracts with Nasa and the US military to launch satellites.
Mr Musk this month announced that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa had bought six tickets for a trip around the moon, something he hoped would be possible within five years but could begin testing with three.
Mr Bezos, who grew up in Miami and made his fortune on Amazon.com which he founded in 1994, created Blue Origin six years later with the hope of sending himself along with space tourists into orbit.
