Blue Origin’s new Orbital Reef station is the future of commercial space racing

In the billionaire space race, SpaceX seems to be getting much of the attention thanks to owner Elon Musk.

However, rival Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is quietly working on big plans.

Last year, the company launched its first manned flight with Bezos on it. For now, space travel seems only for the wealthy, but Erika Wagner, Blue Origin’s senior director for emerging markets, believes this could change.

“The cost of access to space has been falling steadily for decades. We are seeing innovation in rocket reusability that is truly groundbreaking,” Wagner told Metro.co.uk.

She describes space travel to the point of flying from London to Dubai and ditching the plane.

‘We’ve been doing that with rockets for decades’

If successfully reusing rockets could be the key to making space travel affordable, then Blue Origin is a pioneer.

The company’s New Shepard was the first reusable rocket to successfully make a soft landing, beating SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster by several weeks.

“The New Shepard rocket made its maiden flight in 2015 and was the first rocket to go into space, come down and deploy again,” Wagner said.

The same principle is applied to Blue Origin’s newer rocket, the New Glenn.

“It will be a very large Saturn V-class rocket that will carry large payloads to Earth orbit and to the Moon and beyond.”

Currently, the company is considering reusing the rocket’s first stage, but ultimately wants to “reuse the entire rocket”.

“The world is starting to think so normally now. My kids launched model rockets and they ran to the field and brought them back and asked me for another engine because rockets fly again right? It’s going to be something that even school kids will understand,” she said.

The last time Blue Origin made the news was when one of their rockets caught fire minutes after launch in September. That was also a New Shepard missile.

The mission, dubbed NS-23, was New Shepard’s first launch with no humans on board in more than a year and the fourth mission in 2022.

Wagner explained that the NS-23 mission was a payload mission with science experiments, not humans. The capsule itself managed to escape the rocket.

So the pod came and landed safely back at the lunch spot. We were able to extract the cargo from the capsule and return it to our customers,” said Wagner.

Following the incident, Blue Origin’s fleet of New Shepard missiles was grounded until the FAA completed an internal investigation. Wagner tells us the company is “currently working with the FAA on this.”

“We always want to make sure we fully understand all our anomalies before flying again. So we’re in the process of doing that, and as soon as we’re ready to fly safely again, we will,” Wagner said.

So we won’t be seeing any blue origin missiles launch until they get permission from the FAA.

space station

In addition to the rocket launch, however, Blue Origin has an even larger project in mind: the Orbital Reef space station.

As NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) approaches its end of life in 2030, the US has awarded $415.6 million to private companies to develop and operate private commercial space stations, and Blue Origin is one of them.

Last year, NASA awarded Blue Origin $130 million for its Orbital Reef space station in partnership with Sierra Space and Boeing.

“If we go to the Moon and Mars, we will still need low Earth orbit. It is the closest to home and the most convenient place for us to train astronauts, conduct medical research and develop technology,” said Wagner.

Orbital Reef will also move beyond research to enable more commercial and consumer applications.

“So you could envision a space hotel or a space movie studio or other things that would take you and me to space,” Wagner said.

While this sounds too science fiction to be true, it could happen much sooner than we think. Wagner stated that Orbital Reef should be ahead of the ISS due date in 2030.

“Nasa has said it wants to do a two-year transition. So by the end of the decade Orbital Reef will be there.”

Working and playing in space is therefore not a far-fetched dream. Orbital Reef can also be vital for NASA’s Artemis Program which aims to return humans to the moon by 2024 to establish a sustainable human presence there.

“Now we are building the technologies and economies that make it logical for us to go back, not just to put footprints and flags, but this time to stay,” Wagner said of waiting 50 years to return to the Moon.

“The computers that brought Apollo to the moon… Your phone is more powerful than that.”

A bigger picture

Wagner speaks of “lunar permanence,” with humanity bringing the moon into our embrace as part of who we are and what we do.

“I think we’re finally at that point with reusable rockets and powerful computers that lower the cost of the technology and increase the economic utility of the data, coming back to stay this time around.

This fits into Blue Origin’s goals for space tourism, but Wagner tells us the bigger picture.

“We envision a future where millions of people live and work in space for the benefit of the Earth. It’s not just about walking or using the room as an emergency exit,” she said.

“There’s room for all of us. So we’re really investing in infrastructure. We’re building the road to space so everyone can ride it.

So we’re talking about settlements on the moon and Mars?

“Settlements are certainly a possibility. The Artemis program will have missions to the moon. So how do we move from missions to communities? I think that’s a very interesting question,” Wagner said.

Last year, NASA has awarded SpaceX an exclusive contract worth $2.9 billion Bringing astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface. It beat out Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics, who had both submitted proposals for the lunar module contract.

While this was a blow to Blue Origin, Wagner says they continue to invest in their lunar capabilities.

“A NASA contract to support lunar development is now pending. We look forward to returning to the moon to stay for the moment.”

As of September, NASA was seeking proposals to develop a lunar lander for missions beyond Artemis III, and Blue Origin appears to be pursuing that contract.

Blue Origin’s rivalry with SpaceX is hard to ignore, but Wagner tells us of Bezos’ philosophy in which “there are two kinds of companies: conquerors and explorers.”

“Conquerors are always looking at what other companies are doing and explorers are always looking at the horizon. We focus on the horizon. We’re trying to figure out what the market needs and what the planet needs,” Wagner said.

So what does Blue Origin need for the market and the planet?

“We are focused on thinking about space for the good of Earth, keeping three things in mind. First, we must radically reduce launch costs and establish affordable, reliable access to space.”

“Once you have affordable and reliable access to storage, you need to figure out how to use the storage. How do we use the resources of space, whether it be energy or minerals or other things that serve our planet?’

“The third point is that space travel is such a long-term pursuit that we need to inspire the next generation. We need to develop and inspire people because these are things that don’t happen in my life or yours. These are things that will last for generations.”

Wagner alludes to the overview effect, a cognitive shift some astronauts report when viewing Earth from space.

“You have a very different sense of the fragility of our planet, the importance of connecting with humanity and the fact that there are no limits to space.”

The question is when will we reach the point where our children or even we can afford to travel to space to experience this?

“I don’t know, but I’m definitely looking forward to having the chance to go into space one day,” Wagner said.