Blue Origin eyes ULA
November 20, 2023
By Chris Forrester
The Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket company is reported to be the front runners in the purchase of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket business. ULA is a joint-venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin and their Delta and Atlas rocket versions. ULA holds many Nasa and US military contracts for satellite launches.
The Blue Origin interest has been expected – but is not yet confirmed – and the link makes sense in that the Bezos engineers are behind the development of its Vulcan Centaur rocket engine which is planned to be used on the ULA rockets.
Blue Origin is a privately-held company founded by Bezos. The widespread reports suggest that Bezos is annually selling around $1 billion of Amazon shares to fund Blue Origin and its fleet of rockets ranging from the sub-orbital New Shepard to the more powerful New Glenn. Bezos’s fortune is quoted at $165.9 billion.
Blue Origin is also involved in Blue Moon, a lunar landing rocket and mission.
Bezos is already building a challenging operation against Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 and Starship rocket business. Bezos is also backing Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband by satellite business. Adding ULA could be a fast-track move for both enterprises.