Amazon Chief Bezos Reveals Launch Deal With European Satellite Operator Eutelsat -- 3rd Update

By Andy Pasztor 

The space-transportation company run by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday announced European satellite operator Eutelsat SA is its first commercial launch customer, highlighting progress in developing a world-class rocket that could compete with existing boosters within a few years.

With a blastoff date slated for 2021, the agreement catapults Blue Origin LLC, founded in 2000 by the Amazon chief and billionaire entrepreneur, into a position to potentially vie for launch business from other global satellite firms. Work on the massive rocket that is intended to boost the satellite into orbit wasn't revealed by Blue Origin until late last year.

Tuesday's joint announcement, made at an international trade show in Washington, represents Blue Origin's emergence as a force in the commercial satellite world. From the outset, the rocket -- called New Glenn -- was intended to be reusable, and Mr. Bezos said during his presentation that it is being designed to fly as many as 100 times.

Underscoring Blue Origin's growth, Mr. Bezos said the company, based in a Seattle suburb, now has more than 1,000 employees. The company expects a two-stage version of the New Glenn rocket to blast a payload of up to 13 tons into low-Earth orbit.

Once a major satellite company develops enough trust in a newly designed rocket to commit to a maiden launch -- even if at a sharply reduced price -- launch contracts with other operators typically follow.

Neither Mr. Bezos nor Eutelsat disclosed the price of the anticipated launch, but traditionally such introductory missions have involved as much as a 70% cut from the projected full price.

For Blue Origin, which hasn't yet conducted a full-fledged test flight of its big booster, the contract with Eutelsat adds to the credibility of the space company's team.

Plans for heavy-lift boosters previously unveiled by Mr. Bezos, including one roughly half as powerful as the iconic Saturn V rockets that lifted Apollo astronauts to the moon, ultimately could emerge as rivals to powerful rockets already under development by fellow billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is working on its own version of a deep-space booster and capsule.

The two-stage version of the New Glenn rocket, named after the late U.S. astronaut and senator John Glenn, previously was described by Blue Origin as 270 feet tall, and able to generate nearly 3.9 million pounds of thrust from seven main engines. A larger, three-stage version would be more than 310 feet tall.

With a few exceptions, Mr. Bezos has opted to run Blue Origin since its founding at the beginning of the last decade behind a strict veil of secrecy -- and without seeking substantial federal contracts or development funding. As expected, however, Tuesday's announcement adds transparency.

Last fall, Mr. Bezos rocked the international aerospace community by disclosing some particulars of the New Glenn rocket. If it begins commercial flights within four years as intended, the booster also would become a competitor for Arianespace, Europe's premier launch provider, and United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

Over the years, Mr. Bezos has stressed the importance of creating reusable technology capable of slashing transportation costs by operating much more frequently than today's rockets. He also has talked about his long-term vision of "millions of people living and working in space."

The Eutelsat announcement came a day after Mr. Bezos released the first photographs of a fully assembled BE-4 engine, which will power New Glenn into orbit.

In conjunction with his speech at the satellite conference, Mr. Bezos continued his pattern of focusing on long-term goals of space exploration and settlement. In a message posted on Twitter, the self-described "space geek" pointedly said he and his company "can't wait to take you to space."

Mr. Bezos told conference attendees that to make space transportation less expensive, the eventual goal ought to be to make rocket launches comparable to commercial aircraft operations. SpaceX's Mr. Musk and other commercial-space champions have echoed the same sentiments over the years.

New Glenn piggybacks on development of Blue Origin's simpler, suborbital New Shepard launch system, a single-stage rocket and capsule designed to fly fare-paying tourists some 60 miles above the planet. Test flights with crew members aboard are expected to begin sometime this year, with commercial operations starting perhaps a year later.

Basking in the glow of his new role as a satellite launch provider, Mr. Bezos told the audience, "we couldn't hope for a better first partner."

Based in Paris, Eutelsat has more than three dozen satellites circling the Earth and provides services that include video broadcasting, news gathering and broadband connections. Started as an international satellite organization in the 1970s, it became a private company in 2001.

Previously, Mr., Bezos signaled his engineers and scientists also were actively working on a significantly larger rocket designed for interplanetary travel. He reiterated on Tuesday that he became enthralled with space at the age of five, watching the first human landing on the Moon, and has been fascinated with it since that experience. "You don't choose your passions" he told the conference, according to news reports.

But on Tuesday, the thrust of his presentation as well as the focus of the audience appeared to be on New Glenn -- and its previously secret features. The rocket, for instance, is designed to be able to land on a floating platform even in windy conditions, as a result of fins that help control aerodynamic forces. And it has six deployable legs to ensure a soft touchdown.

Write to Andy Pasztor at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 07, 2017 14:23 ET (19:23 GMT)

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