Heinlein Prize Awarded to Bezos

The Heinlein Prize, given for progress in commercial space, was awarded to Jeff Bezos on June 21st. Mr. Bezos is the third winner of the prize, following Dr. Peter Diamandis and Elon Musk. The prize is awarded every five years.

The prize announcement stated:

Under Bezos’ leadership, Blue Origin developed a number of technology firsts that are driving U.S. space competitiveness. The reusable BE-3, a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine, is now being used in Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft. New Shepard is the first rocket ever to fly above the Karman line into space and then land vertically upon the Earth. Furthermore, it has done so multiple times with the same rocket hardware – not even removing the engine between flights. In late 2014, Blue Origin reached a commercial agreement with a private launch company to develop the BE-4 engine which could be used to power the next generation of U.S. launch vehicles.

In response to receiving the award, Mr. Bezos stated:

Robert Heinlein inspired millions with his visionary—and incredibly entertaining—stories...Heinlein foresaw a thriving future with humans throughout the solar system. We won’t stop working to make that vision come true.

Let's hope that many others are following in the awardees' steps to push us into space.

A $600 Million Ride to the Moon?

The Russians made an offer sometime back to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to see how much he wanted to go to the moon - $200 million to circle the moon in a Soyuz spacecraft. When Mr. Bezos said he wanted Russia to test the mission first, the Russians agreed for another $400 million. I guess anything is possible with a few dollars on your pocket.

Of course, Mr. Bezos said no and now he hopes to create new space tourists via his company Blue Origin at a much lower costs. I think this is a much better way to spend his funds.

You can read the full story at Space.com.

I Will Support This Space Mission - One Way Only

 Here is a recent tweet by Mr. Bezos:

@JeffBezos

Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace http://bit.ly/1OpyW5N

Blue Origin Success Bugs Musk

Monday was a great day for Blue Origin, a small rocket company funded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. The firm successfully landed its BE-3 reusable rocket (shown above), something SpaceX has struggled with. The rocket also carried a space capsule, the New Shepard (shown below), 62 miles up before it too successfully landed via parachute.

On its website, Blue Origin stated:

We are building Blue Origin to seed an enduring human presence in space, to help us move beyond this blue planet that is the origin of all we know. We are pursuing this vision patiently, step-by-step. Our fantastic team in Kent, Van Horn and Cape Canaveral is working hard not just to build space vehicles, but to bring closer the day when millions of people can live and work in space.

Blue Origin's plans are to use the rocket and space capsule for space tourism.  However, the firm has joined the United Launch Alliance as they compete against SpaceX for future defense and space missions. 

From the sounds of it, Elon Musk is not impressed. Following the successful landing, he tweeted:

@elonmusk: Jeff maybe unaware SpaceX suborbital VTOL flight began 2013. Orbital water landing 2014. Orbital land landing next. https://t.co/S6WMRnEFY5

Oh well, one could say "boys with their toys," but I think the competition is great for the US space industry. Let's have more of it.