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Blue Origin Gets Indefinite-Quantity NASA Contract for Suborbital Flights

As it gears up to “foster a viable market for American commercial reusable suborbital platforms,” the American space agency announced on Tuesday it has selected four companies to integrate and fly technology payloads to the edge of space.
Blue Origin's reusable rockets to sent cargo to suborbital locations 10 photos
Photo: Blue Origin
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, together with Aerostar International, Up Aerospace, and World View Enterprises,  have been selected by NASA to develop reusable rockets that would be used to carry payloads to suborbital locations.

As per the provisions of the agency’s Flight Opportunities Program, the four will receive an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract valued at $45 million. NASA did not say what exactly the payloads to be sent up will be, only mentioning that they will all “help meet the agency's research and technology needs.

This is not the first major contract awarded by NASA to Blue Origin. At the beginning of June, the agency said the company, along nine others, will be taking part in the initial research meant to create the technologies needed for mining asteroids and alien planets.

The space agency would invest $10 million in these projects through its NextSTEP contracts. All research should be completed by 2021.

Awarding contracts of such importance to private companies is a new business model for the space agency. While busy setting up a possible manned mission to Mars, NASA has stopped sending astronauts and cargo up to space in its own rockets for nearly a decade.

In the time passed since the retiring of the space shuttles in 2011, the rise of private companies and the concept of reusable rockets have produced a shift in the manner in which NASA sees space exploration.

Being a lot cheaper to fly that one-time-only rockets, the machines built by Blue Origin or SpaceX have become the preferred means of transportation for cargo to space. Soon, NASA will also begin sending humans to space using the same technology.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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