The SpaceCom Column

Over the last 90 days, Blue Origin has made three significant moves signaling that the company is going large. It’s hard to believe the space systems company is over 25 years old and has conducted sub-orbital launch operations for over a decade. But the Moon and the Department of War are now calling, and we should expect more announcements throughout the year. 

Certainly, the most recent dramatic signal that Blue Origin is accelerating its pace is the “pause” of New Shepard flights for “no less than two years” to shift resources for accelerating the development of the company’s human lunar capabilities, per the announcement on the company’s website. 

While not a profit center by any stretch of the imagination, New Shepard has flown 38 times, carried 98 humans above the Karman line, and provided rides to more than 200 scientific and research payloads needing microgravity. The announcement goes on to say that New Shepard had a multi-year customer backlog. A human seat on the 10 minute ride to orbit cost a cool $1 million, according to various reports, and the company was in the process of building more capsules and launch hardware before the pause was declared a bit more than a week after the completion of the 38th flight.  

More than 500 people spent part or all of their time working on New Shepard, reported Ars Technica, so it is fair to suppose that some if not many of those people will find themselves working on Blue Moon full time in the next 90 days. 

At the end of December, Tory Bruno announced he was joining Blue Origin as President, National Security, reporting to CEO Dave Limp. Tory is a trusted partner for the Department of War, having spent over a decade as President and CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) working to make Vulcan fly while retiring Atlas and assuring that company’s future for the next decade with the Amazon Leo launch contract.  

Tory’s challenge will be positioning Blue Origin as the number 2 launch provider for the United States, challenging SpaceX and ULA for a larger share of national security launch contracts. Will the Moon be in Tory’s portfolio? That’s an interesting question both for him and the current Administration. 

TeraWave, Blue Origin’s just announced satellite communications network, is likely to be a part of his portfolio for its ability to deliver high-speed symmetrical data speeds at fiber-like capacity anywhere in the world. Using a combination of RF and optical links, TeraWave will deliver speeds of up to 144 Gbps using O/V-band links through a constellation of 5,280 LEO satellites, while up to 6 Tbps will be available through optical links on a network of 128 MEO satellites.  

Optimized for enterprise, data center, and government customers, TeraWave is no Starlink or Amazon Leo. Blue Origin expects a maximum of 100,000 customers and one can guarantee those customers won’t be paying $129 per month with a free dish thrown in to get started. The combination of symmetrical and high-speed bandwidth will be especially attractive for national security applications requiring mobility and a backup to terrestrial fiber.  

However, TeraWave’s announcement is just as significant for its suddenness. Blue Origin hadn’t dropped a hint they were working on an enterprise-class communications network. At some point this year, I expect the company to detail its plans for a Blue Moon 1.5 human lander to bridge the gap between the cargo version it expects to launch later this year and the planned Mark 2 lander for crew and cargo. What other surprises do Bezos and Bruno have in the months to come?  

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