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Blue Origin history
Blue Origin company history timeline
Blue Origin was founded in 2000 in Kent, Washington, and began developing both rocket propulsion systems and launch vehicles.
Rob Meyerson joined Blue Origin in 2003 and served as the company's long-time president.
As early as 2005, Bezos had discussed plans to create a vertical-takeoff and landing spaceship called New Shepard.
Amazon diversified even further in 2006 by introducing Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud-computing service that eventually became the largest such service in the world.
In late 2007 Amazon released a new handheld reading device called the Kindle, a digital book reader with wireless Internet connectivity, enabling customers to purchase, download, read, and store a vast selection of books on demand.
Amazon announced in 2010 that sales of Kindle books had surpassed those of hardcover books.
In a 2011 interview, Bezos indicated that he founded Blue Origin to send customers into space by focusing on two objectives: to decrease the cost and to increase the safety of human spaceflight.
Blue Origin has been flight testing the New Shepard rocket and its redundant safety systems since 2012.
Bezos bought The Washington Post and affiliated publications for $250 million in 2013.
By July 2014, Bezos had invested over US$500 million of his own money into Blue Origin.
Since the founding, the company was quite secretive about its plans and emerged from its "self-imposed silence" only after 2015.
Blue indicated that employment was expected to grow to 1,000 in 2016 from 600 in February 2016.
In April 2016, the same New Shepard booster again flew, now for a third time, reaching 103.4 km (339,178 ft), before again returning and landing successfully.
In September 2016, Blue announced that its orbital rocket would be named New Glenn in honor of the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, and that the 7-meter-diameter (23 ft) first stage will be powered by seven Blue Origin BE-4 engines.
As of 2016, Blue Origin was spending US$1 billion a year, funded by Jeff Bezos' sales of Amazon stock.
By April 2017, development and test of the 2,400 kN (550,000 lbf) BE-4 were progressing well and Blue Origin was expected to be selected for the ULA Vulcan rocket.
In September 2017, Blue Origin closed a deal for New Glenn with its first Asian customer, Mu Space.
In December 2017, Blue Origin launched a test experiment on New Shepard with a technology that could one day treat chest trauma in a space environment.
Bezos’s net worth was calculated in 2018 at $112 billion, making him the richest person in the world.
Meyerson led the growth of the company from 10 to 1500 people before leaving in late 2018.
The couple announced in January 2019 that they were divorcing, and the following day the National Enquirer printed a story revealing that Bezos was having an affair with another woman.
On December 11, 2019, the company completed its twelfth test flight of the rocket.
Founded by Blue Origin in 2019, Club for the Future is a foundation whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and to help invent the future of life in space.
In 2020 he had a net worth of more than $180 billion.
The newly disclosed orbital rocket – which would subsequently be named New Glenn – was planned to fly its initial flight in 2020.
In February 2021 Bezos announced that he would be stepping down as CEO later that year.
In June 2021, Blue Origin auctioned off a seat on the company's debut private astronaut mission for $28 million; however, the winner of the auction did not take part in the flight due to a scheduling conflict.
In August 2021, Blue Origin began a lawsuit against the United States federal government over its failed bid on the Human Landing System contract, which included the Blue Moon lander.
In October 2021, William Shatner (age 90), the actor who played Captain Kirk on the Original Star Trek series, boarded a Blue Origin sub-orbital capsule and successfully flew to space becoming the oldest person to fly to space.
The third crewed mission of New Shepard launched 11 December 2021.
Eutelsat is expected to start launching TV satellites in 2022 on Blue Origin's New Glenn orbital launch vehicle.
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Blue Origin competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpaceX | 2002 | $2.0B | 9,500 | 1,522 |
| Masten Space Systems | 2004 | $3.3M | 84 | 10 |
| Axiom Space | 2016 | $90,000 | 350 | 48 |
| Firefly Aerospace | 2017 | $128.0M | 500 | 145 |
| CesiumAstro | 2017 | $220,000 | 86 | 293 |
| Stratolaunch | 2011 | $10.0M | 87 | 40 |
Blue Origin history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Blue Origin, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Blue Origin. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Blue Origin. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Blue Origin. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Blue Origin and its employees or that of Zippia.
Blue Origin may also be known as or be related to Blue Origin and Blue Origin, LLC.