Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, andPaul Allen will find themselves with some company as billionaires across the world begin to invest in space transport in earnest.
This isn’t exactly rocket science (pardon the terrible pun): as NASA slows its own plans and parcels out multimillion-dollar Space Act Agreement contracts, the very wealthy will be able to indulge their fascination with the final frontier while picking up the government’s slack.
Entrepreneurs with an engineering bent who may not be interested in space tourism — inevitably a niche market, with tickets costing upwards of $200,000 — may feel energized by the prospect of an expanding role for the private sector in spacetransportation.
For contracts worth billions rather than millions, they’ll find themselves competing with more established aerospace giants, but there’s room in what is arguably a limitless market. What was essentially a government fiefdom for 50 years is up for grabs.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has always been incredibly secretive about his own space investment, a company called Blue Origin based near Seattle but with a rocket launch facility out in the wilds of west Texas. Even the company’s motto sounds slightly cloak-and-dagger: Gradatim Ferociter, Latin for ‘step by step, ferociously.’
Blue Origin actually launched and landed its first suborbital spacecraft in 2006, but Bezos has rarely spoken publicly about the company’s work developing vertical take-off and landing rockets. Earlier this year, however, a mid-air accident forced him to take to his blog.
In September, an unmanned test flight blew up at 45,000 feet over tiny Van Horn, Texas. Some residents spoke to Forbes at the time, describing the accident as resembling the infamous Challenger explosion, and adding that Blue Origin remains something of a mystery even locally.
After a few hours of silence, Bezos released a statement via Blue Origin’s blog explaining that the rocket lost thrust. “We’re already working on our next development vehicle,” the Amazon CEO said.
Since then, Blue Origin’s website has had a total revamp (in early 2011, it had a decidedly 1990s look and contained scant information). The company seems to be opening up about its work and actively growing its team. There were 14 immediate job openings listed online as of late December.
