Bezos Brings Space Race to Kent as he Plans a Passenger Rocket

[Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI,

"Bezos Brings Space Race to Kent as he Plans a Passenger Rocket"
Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002703299_blueorigin25m.html

: The new space race has touched down in Kent, where Amazon.com
: billionaire Jeff Bezos is building a rocket-ship complex set to
: open early next year.

: Blue Origin, Bezos' aerospace company, will use the facility to
: design and build spacecraft and engines. The company's near-term
: goal is to develop a vehicle that can take passengers on a thrill
: ride to the edge of space.

: But eventually, Bezos has said, he wants to build spaceships
: powerful enough to orbit the Earth. He even hopes to establish
: permanent colonies in space someday.

: Bezos paid $13 million for just less than 25 acres of industrial
: land next to the railroad tracks in the Kent Valley. City records
: show he is spending up to $8 million to remodel an existing office
: building and warehouse and build an experimental stand where rocket
: engines will be tested in three-minute-long trial runs. Among the
: upgrades spelled out in the plans: installation of aircraft hangar
: doors.

: Test launches will be conducted in West Texas, where Bezos recently
: bought a 165,000-acre ranch near the small town of Van Horn, about
: 110 miles southeast of El Paso. Long-term plans for that site
: include a spaceport where three-person space-tourism flights could
: blast off once a week.

: Blue Origin employs about 40 people, and the work force at the Kent
: site will grow to 70 to 100 over the next several years, city
: records say. According to its Web site, the company's design team
: includes veterans of several major aerospace programs, including
: the space shuttle, National Missile Defense and the Sea Launch
: floating rocket-launch platform.

: Founded in 2000, Blue Origin is one of several private rocket
: enterprises fueled by the dreams and dollars of wealthy
: entrepreneurs.

: South African Elon Musk, who invented the online-payment system
: PayPal, is poised to demonstrate a low-cost launch system next
: month, sending a military satellite into orbit atop his Falcon 1
: rocket.

: With a fortune earned from the computer games Doom and Quake, John
: Carmack founded an aerospace company and is testing a rocket called
: the Black Armadillo.

: The most successful of the space mavericks has been Microsoft
: co-founder Paul Allen, who spent $20 million to develop
: SpaceShipOne. Designed by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, the stubby-
: winged craft that lands like an airplane won the $10 million
: Anasari X Prize last year for the first manned commercial space
: flight.

: Richard Branson, the flamboyant owner of Virgin Music and Virgin
: Atlantic Airways, licensed the technology from Allen and vowed to
: start taking passengers into space by 2009. Earlier this month, he
: announced an agreement with the state of New Mexico to build a
: $225 million spaceport near White Sands Missile Range.

: Virgin Galactic, Branson's aerospace arm, says 100 people have paid
: the full $200,000 fare for one of the initial flights. Another
: 38,000 would-be astronauts have put down a deposit, the company
: says.

: Each of the enterprises is focusing on a different approach to the
: same challenge — developing a reliable, affordable and safe method
: to get people into space. Competition among the groups will raise
: the odds of success, said John Logsdon, director of the Space
: Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington,
: D.C.

: Bezos has been the most tight-lipped of all the rocketeers,
: revealing little about the technology he's exploring. Blue Origin's
: bare-bones Web site offers scant information, and the company isn't
: listed in phone books.

: Blue Origin spokesman Bruce Hicks said officials don't want to
: discuss the project. "They're not at that stage yet," he said. "The
: time will come."

: The basic outline of Blue Origin's plans emerges from Simpson's
: report and documents filed with the city of Kent, which granted
: permits for construction and operation. A few details were also
: revealed at public hearings in Texas on Blue Origin's application
: for launch permits from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

: The company is designing a spacecraft that will take off vertically
: like the classic sci-fi rocket, land the same way and carry three
: passengers.

: Some of Bezos' team worked on the Delta Clipper Experimental
: (DC-X), a NASA/Pentagon program that developed a prototype of a
: reusable rocket which began re-entry nose-first, then rolled and
: touched down on struts at its base.

: The team is using kerosene-derived rocket fuel, which is a standard
: in the industry, Logsdon said.

: The 243,000-square-foot office/warehouse building in Kent is being
: revamped to accommodate cavernous bays, assembly areas, chemical
: laboratories — and a workout room and day-care center. The
: 90,000-square-foot rocket-engine test stand will be surrounded by a
: 12-foot earthen berm.

: During tests, the engines will be held inside a steel capsule. The
: rocket exhaust will be contained in a 60-foot-long, 4-foot-diameter
: duct. Five thousand gallons of water a minute will circulate around
: the apparatus, to cool the exhaust and dampen the noise. Documents
: say the company expects to conduct an average of two rocket-engine
: tests a week.

: The earliest test flights in Texas could occur late next year,
: depending on FAA approval.

: Blue Origin, currently in a warehouse in Seattle's Duwamish
: industrial area, plans to move to the Kent site in the first
: quarter of next year, spokesman Hicks said.

: The fledging online bookstore Bezos established a decade ago has
: propelled him to No. 82 on Forbes magazine's list of the world's
: richest people and revolutionized business. His net worth is
: estimated at $5.1 billion. His passion for space also runs deep.

: The valedictory address he delivered at his high-school graduation
: in 1982 stressed the need for space colonization.

: "I'm not sure this is a hobby for him," Logsdon said. "I think this
: is his next big idea."

--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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