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☆ Jeff Bezos’s Big Rocket Moves Into View and Closer to Launch
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

There’s an easy knock against the space dreams of Jeff Bezos and his rocket company, Blue Origin: In its 24th year of existence, the company has yet to launch a single thing to orbit. Blue Origin’s accomplishments to date are modest — a small vehicle known as New Shepard that takes space tourists and experiments on brief suborbital jaunts. By contrast, SpaceX, the rocket company started by the other high-profile space billionaire, Elon Musk, today dominates the launch market. On Wednesday, Blue Origin hopes to change the narrative, holding a coming-out party of sorts for its new big rocket. The rocket, as tall as a 32-story building, lay horizontally on the trusses of a mobile launch platform.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, New Shepard, Elon Musk Organizations: SpaceX, Cape Canaveral Space Force Locations: Florida

☆ Virgin Galactic launches first paying customers to the edge of space
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Virgin Galactic, the venture founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, successfully launched its first paying customers to the edge of space — a milestone two decades in the making. (Future Virgin Galactic flights, however, are expected to include a range of high-profile customers.) Bennett’s role was to assess the comfort and function of the flight, using that information to inform future changes Virgin Galactic might make to its rocket-powered space plane, VSS Unity. Organizations such as NASA have routinely flown experiments on suborbital rockets, including Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin missions. In a tragic 2014 accident, Virgin Galactic’s space plane broke apart during flight, killing the mission’s copilot, Michael Alsbury.

Persons: Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic’s, Jeff Bezos’s, Walter Villadei, Angelo Landolfi, Colin Bennett, Pantaleone, Branson, Burt Rutan, Paul Allen, Hamish Harding, Michael Alsbury, — Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic, Italian Air Force, Virgin, SpaceX, Italy’s National Research Council, Branson, VSS, VSS Unity, NASA, International, National Research Council, Microsoft, Galactic, OceanGate, Scaled Composites, Origin, Congress, Federal Aviation Administration, FAA Locations: British, New Mexico, United States

☆ Virgin Orbit: Richard Branson's rocket company files for bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

London CNN —Virgin Orbit, the rocket company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy in the United States. The California-based company said in a statement Monday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, meaning that it can continue doing business while it restructures its debts. The announcement comes just days after Virgin Orbit said it would lay off about 85% of its workforce to reduce expenses since it could not secure additional funding. The company was founded in 2017 to make small rockets, called LauncherOne, that can deliver lightweight satellites to orbit quickly and cheaply. Virgin Orbit ran into trouble in January when one of its rockets failed to make it to orbit because its engine overheated.

☆ Washington Post Considers Selling Tech Business It Built Up on Jeff Bezos’s Watch
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Alexandra Bruell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Top Washington Post executives recently came to owner Jeff Bezos with a proposal. The company had spent the better part of a decade turning an in-house publishing tool into a broader software business, with some success. The Post’s software, known as Arc XP, now services the likes of pro basketball’s Golden State Warriors and energy company BP PLC. But the business, the executives said, had reached a crossroads and the Post needed to explore a spinoff or sale to realize its potential, according to people familiar with the discussions. Mr. Bezos gave his blessing to explore those options, they said.

☆ Jeff Bezos’s Space Company Bids Again for NASA Moon Lander, After SpaceX Win
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Micah Maidenberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, said it is part of a group that has bid to develop a lunar lander. Jeff Bezos‘s space company said it is making another run at the moon, after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration chose rival SpaceX to handle a high-profile lunar mission last year. Blue Origin LLC, the space company Mr. Bezos founded and has backed, said Tuesday in a tweet that it is part of a group that submitted a bid to develop a lunar lander capable of transporting NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon on future missions for Artemis, the agency’s space-exploration program. Blue Origin’s partners on its bid include Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.

☆ The clean energy company turning city blocks greener
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN Business —BlocPower, a Brooklyn-based clean energy company, is bringing eco-friendly, all-electric heating and cooling systems to older buildings in lower income communities, with the goal of reducing carbon footprints and energy bills. By replacing dated equipment like gas powered furnaces with heat pump systems, the company says it is able to dramatically change a building’s environmental footprint. Building owners that have turned to BlocPower say they see a real difference. BlocPower lowered bills, made the energy system quieter, cleaned the air and offered cooling solutions that tenants are thrilled with. “What needs to happen now is we need to shift gears and move the entire infrastructure of energy systems and buildings away from fossil fuels to clean energy,” said Baird.

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