. 24/7 Space News .
Space Race 2: Bezos And Life Beyond Amazon

The only way is up.
by Irene Mona Klotz
Cape Canaveral FL (UPI) Jan 18, 2005
For years, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has been laboring in secret at his Seattle headquarters on a space-related project known only as Blue Origin.

While his fellow billionaire brethren basked in the commercial space limelight - Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sponsored the Ansari X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne program; PayPal creator Elon Musk sold cut-rate rides aboard his Falcon 1 rocket; video gamer John Carmack created spunky Armadillo Aerospace - Bezos kept quiet about his own transition from cyberspace to outer space.

Last week, however, Bezos revealed a small part of his vision for Blue Origin. In an interview with the Van Horn Advocate, a weekly newspaper in Van Horn, Texas, Bezos explained why he had purchased 165,000 acres north of town.

Evidently, a section of Corn Ranch, as the property is known, will be transformed into a Blue Origin rocket-development center and spaceport to support the company's planned sub-orbital spaceships.

"Texas has been a longstanding leader in the aerospace industry and we are very excited about the possibility of locating here," Bezos told the newspaper. "Blue Origin's facilities could help make West Texas a center for private, space-related activities."

Nostalgia drove Bezos' decision to locate his space center in rural Texas. The 41-year-old entrepreneur, whom Forbes magazine pegs as the 82nd richest person in the world - with a fortune estimated at $5.1 billion - spent his summers as a child on his grandfather's ranch in southern Texas. The lessons he learned - perseverance and self-reliance - were key to his development, Bezos told the paper.

"I hope to give my family the same experiences on my West Texas ranch now," he said in the interview.

Initially, Bezos would build an engine-test stand, fuel- and water-storage tanks and a general-purpose building at the Corn Ranch site. Later, he would add vehicle-test facilities. Eventually, he said he wants to build a spaceport for launching sub-orbital passenger rockets that take off and land vertically.

Like the vehicles developed to compete for the X Prize, Blue Origin's vessel is being designed to carry three people to the edge of space. Bezos told the paper that flights could be begin in six or seven years.

Blue Origin program manager Rob Meyerson joined Bezos in Van Horn last week to tell the newspaper of its plans.

"While it was obvious from their expression that this project is complex, time consuming and challenging, they made it clear that the project is going to move ahead very deliberately while being well planned and carefully thought out," the paper wrote.

Bezos noted that no tax dollars will be used to develop Corn Ranch's spaceport, although he has contacted the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial space operations in the United States, about Blue Origin's plans.

"Blue Origin's decision to locate a private aerospace testing and operations center in Van Horn holds great promise for our state's expansion in the field of commercialized space fight," Texas Gov. Rick Perry told the paper. "The continued development of spaceports is important to the statewide strategic plan to grow and promote aerospace industry clusters in Texas."

Blue Origin is not the only startup aerospace company with a toehold in Texas. About 500 miles northeast of Van Horn is the small town of Mesquite, just outside Dallas, where Armadillo Aerospace is developing a passenger sub-orbital rocket called the Black Armadillo. Carmack, creator of best-selling video games Doom and Quake, said Armadillo is about to resume testing following the loss of its prototype vehicle in August.

Armadillo was among two-dozen teams competing for the $10-million X Prize, which was promised to the first group that built and flew a privately funded, three-passenger sub-orbital spaceship twice within two weeks. SpaceShipOne, built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif., with backing from Microsoft's Allen, clinched the prize last October.

The purpose of the race, however, was to kick-start a private passenger-spaceflight industry. Following the success of SpaceShipOne, Rutan and Allen picked up a new partner for a commercial suborbital vehicle: Virgin Atlantic's Richard Branson. The new company, Virgin Galactic, initially plans to launch from Scaled Composites' home base at the Mojave Airport.

Another spaceport for sub-orbital launchers is being developed in Las Cruces, N.M., where the foundation that ran the X Prize plans to host an annual 10-day event to showcase the budding sub-orbital spa celiners.

The New Mexico site is controversial, however. For starters, non-U.S. firms may have problems arranging for their vehicles to fly over U.S. soil, although the recently unveiled revision to the official U.S. Space Transportation Policy may help ease the bureaucracy.

Another issue already brewing is competition between Mojave and New Mexico as launch sites, so the addition of a Texas space complex will add another twist to the mix.

All rights reserved. � 2004 United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of United Press International.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express

Brazil Gears Up For Commercial Spaceport
Los Angeles CA (UPI) Jan 12, 2005
A remote site on the rugged Northeast coast of Brazil may become one of the world's first tourism spaceports, home to a fleet of sub-orbital rockets currently being developed by a handful of private space companies.



Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only














The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.