Photo: Blue Origin
In October 2023 the space company owned by former Amazon head honcho Jeff Bezos announced the arrival of something called Blue Ring. A spacecraft by design, the hardware was envisioned as a sort of space truck, meant to handle orbital logistics and delivery.
As if trying to hint this spacecraft would be more or less of a secret deal, the company did not reveal all that much about it and its capabilities. We know just a few shacky facts about it, and that makes the Blue Ring even more interesting.
As the world is increasing its exploitation of space, the needs of the companies and governments doing business up there will diversify. Sooner than later, there will be increasing needs for orbital refueling, hardware delivery, and even data storage.
The Blue Ring, as we understand it, will be capable of delivering just that, and possibly even morelike the ability to "seamlessly connect ground and space communications to support a variety of missions on-orbit." The thing has the capacity to carry up to 3,000 kg (6,600 pounds) of cargo, and should come with unprecedented delta-V capabilities that would allow it to maneuver with ease through multiple orbits - what exactly that means is not entirely known.
Since the concept was introduced a few months ago nothing particularly interesting happened on this front. Earlier in March, however, Blue Origin gave us a heads-up on the upcoming first mission of the Blue Ring.
To get it going the company partnered with the United States Space Force (USSF), and it will use one of the military branch's National Security Space Launch for that. That's a program the USSF is running on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD) in particular and the U.S. government in general.
The mission that will take Blue Ring up is called DarkSky-1 (DS-1) and it is sponsored by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), but its specifics, including carrier rocket, launch time, and launch location, have not been disclosed.
We also don't know how long the mission will last, or anything about its profile, but according to Blue Origin it should be enough to validate some of the Blue Ring's hardware and procedures. That includes space-based processing capabilities, telemetry, tracking and command, and ground-based radiometric tracking.
As per Paul Ebertz, Senior Vice President of Blue Origin's In-Space Systems, the mission "will provide a leap forward for Blue Ring and its ability to provide greater access to multiple orbits," but we are not given a deadline when we should see the spacecraft fully operational.
Like all other projects Blue Origin is currently running, this one too is meant to help fulfill Jeff Bezos' vision of the future. Whereas rival Elon Musk is imagining colonies on Mars, Bezos is dreaming of orbital habitats capable of holding millions of people.
As the world is increasing its exploitation of space, the needs of the companies and governments doing business up there will diversify. Sooner than later, there will be increasing needs for orbital refueling, hardware delivery, and even data storage.
The Blue Ring, as we understand it, will be capable of delivering just that, and possibly even morelike the ability to "seamlessly connect ground and space communications to support a variety of missions on-orbit." The thing has the capacity to carry up to 3,000 kg (6,600 pounds) of cargo, and should come with unprecedented delta-V capabilities that would allow it to maneuver with ease through multiple orbits - what exactly that means is not entirely known.
Since the concept was introduced a few months ago nothing particularly interesting happened on this front. Earlier in March, however, Blue Origin gave us a heads-up on the upcoming first mission of the Blue Ring.
To get it going the company partnered with the United States Space Force (USSF), and it will use one of the military branch's National Security Space Launch for that. That's a program the USSF is running on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD) in particular and the U.S. government in general.
The mission that will take Blue Ring up is called DarkSky-1 (DS-1) and it is sponsored by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), but its specifics, including carrier rocket, launch time, and launch location, have not been disclosed.
We also don't know how long the mission will last, or anything about its profile, but according to Blue Origin it should be enough to validate some of the Blue Ring's hardware and procedures. That includes space-based processing capabilities, telemetry, tracking and command, and ground-based radiometric tracking.
As per Paul Ebertz, Senior Vice President of Blue Origin's In-Space Systems, the mission "will provide a leap forward for Blue Ring and its ability to provide greater access to multiple orbits," but we are not given a deadline when we should see the spacecraft fully operational.
Like all other projects Blue Origin is currently running, this one too is meant to help fulfill Jeff Bezos' vision of the future. Whereas rival Elon Musk is imagining colonies on Mars, Bezos is dreaming of orbital habitats capable of holding millions of people.
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