After dominating e-commerce goods deliveries on Earth, Jeff Bezos’ aviation company Blue Origin has unveiled Blue Ring, a spacecraft platform focused on providing in-space logistics and delivery, expanding upon its mission to build a road to space for the benefit of Earth. The platform provides end-to-end services that span hosting, transportation, refueling, data relay, and logistics, including an “in-space” cloud computing capability.
Blue Ring can host payloads of more than 3,000 kg and provides unprecedented delta-V capabilities and mission flexibility, the company said in a statement late on Monday. Blue Ring serves commercial and government customers and can support a variety of missions in medium Earth orbit out to the cislunar region and beyond.
“Blue Ring addresses two of the most difficult challenges in spaceflight today: growing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on-orbit,” said Paul Ebertz, Senior Vice President of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems. “We're offering our customers the ability to easily access and maneuver through a variety of orbits cost-effectively while having access to critical data to ensure a successful mission,” Ebertz added. Blue Ring is part of a newly-formed Blue Origin business unit called In-Space Systems.
Meanwhile, outgoing Amazon’s devices and services chief Dave Limp is joining Blue Origin as CEO, replacing Bob Smith. Limp will join Blue Origin, starting December 4 as CEO and Smith will step aside on January 2 "to ensure a smooth transition”. Limp joins Blue Origin at a key phase of the company’s multiple space projects.
Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract earlier this year to build a lunar lander for the US space agency’s astronauts. Last week, reports surfaced that Bezos-run aerospace company has laid off around 40 employees in its enterprise technology department.