Important Innovations

  New Glenn Rocket Part of NASA's Commercial Launch Fleet                                            Source:  Blue Origin Jeff Bezos's Rockets Soaring Into Space Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin has scored a big win.  NASA has selected the New Glenn rocket as a launcher for future NASA missions in the mid-2020's.  New Glenn joins NASA's fleet of launch vehicles. New Shepherd NASA has launched Blue Origin's New Shepherd suborbital vehicle dozens of times to fly payloads into space.  The New Glenn is an orbital launcher that can reuse its first stage booster rocket.  Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos says he expects the vehicle will carry humans as well as cargo into space. Space Technology New Glenn is a two stage booster rocket vehicle.  The rocket's reusable first stage is designed to re-fly twenty-five times, after touching down in the ocean and being retrieved.  It can carry up to 14 tons to geostationary orbit and 50 tons to low Earth orbit.

  BE-7 Lunar Lander Rocket Engine:  4th Successful Test     Source:  Blue Origin BE-7 Test Bezos Says BE-7 Will Land 1st Woman on the Moon Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that his space company Blue Origin has completed its fourth successful test of its lunar lander rocket engine, the BE-7.  He added the BE-7 will land the first women astronaut on the Moon.  This comment is interesting because Bezos is not taken to making predictions.  Unlike SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, he is very conservative and quiet about what he wants to target, until he achieves it. NASA's Big Artemis Competition For Blue Origin, SpaceX and Dynetics, the stakes couldn't be higher.  They are competing to be NASA's partner in the Artemis mission which will take astronauts to the Moon in 2024.  It will be the first time US astronauts will land on the Moon since the 1972 Apollo Mission. NASA has awarded a total of $1 billion among the three companies to develop initial lunar lander designs.  Fro

  Focus - Technology For 2024 Artemis Mission to the Moon Source:  NASA Potential $1 Billion Plus in New Space Business for Italy The US and Italy have signed an agreement to explore space together.  Specifically, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Italy's Undersecretary to the Presidency Riccardo Fraccaro have agreed to cooperate on NASA's Artemis mission that will land US astronauts on the Moon.  Other space projects are also covered in the agreement.  According to the CEO of the Italian aerospace and defense group Leonardo, the agreement will generate at least $1.16 billion for the Italian space industry. Artemis and Italy's Technology NASA's Artemis mission aims to land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface in 2024.  NASA wants to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon by the end of this decade.  Leonardo CEO Allesandro Profumo says Italy will be making a significant technology contribution by developing habitable surface modules for human