Blue Origin, the private space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was awarded its first interplanetary NASA contract to launch a mission next year to study the magnetic field around Mars, the U.S. space agency and company said
Blue Origin has flown previous NASA missions with its smaller, suborbital New Shepard rocket, which can carry research payloads on short, microgravity trips to the edge of space and back.
Blue Origin, known for its astro-tourism business for wealthy customers and celebrities, is one of 13 firms NASA chose last year for its Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare missions program. In doing so, NASA takes on greater risk by using promising upstart rocket services with whom commercial customers might be unwilling to fly initially.
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