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| CFD image of spacecraft. Blue Origin photo |
KENT, Wash. -- Blue Origin, one of four companies working on technologies for commercial space transportation, said it successfully tested the design for its orbital spaceship in a series of wind-tunnel tryouts. More than 180 tests were done over the past several weeks at Lockheed Martin's High Speed Wind Tunnel Facility in Dallas. Blue Origin, backed by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos, soon will be conducting tests of the thrust chamber assembly for the BE‑3 100,000-lbf liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen rocket engine recently installed on the E‑1 complex test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center. In addition to Blue Origin, other companies receiving $320 million from NASA for work on space transportation are Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX. (Source:
MSNBC,
Blue Origin press release, 04/26/12)
