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The founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, Jeffrey P. Bezos, delivers the keynote address at Air Force Association's annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference in Oxen Hill, Maryland, September 19, 2018. (Photo of Jim WATSON / AFP / AFP / Getty Images)
The United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has chosen Blue Origin to provide the engine for the first stage of its new rocket, according to a person familiar with the operation.
The agreement marks an important partnership between the pillars of the national security launch branch and Blue Origin, the new rocket company founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos. (Bezos also owns the Washington Post.)
The two companies originally announced their partnership in 2014, but Blue Origin's BE-4 engine was still in development and ULA was maintaining another engine, the AR1, built by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
The contract, announced for the first time by the Wall Street Journal, is an important victory for Blue Origin, the little-known space company founded in 2000. It opens a new business sector for the company, which develops its own rocket, called New Glenn, which would be powered by BE-4 engines. Blue Origin also intends to compete for national security launches and could end up bidding on ULA.
For years, ULA held the monopoly of national security launch contracts and was criticized for using a Russian-made engine in its Atlas V rocket. As tensions between Russia and the United States intensified a senior Russian official has even threatened to cut the supply of engines for launching the Pentagon. The company is currently developing a new rocket, called Vulcan, which would be powered by the BE-4.
Blue Origin's website says the BE-4 will "fly on the Vulcan rocket from the United Launch Alliance in 2019."
Blue Origin has been developing its BE-4 engine for several years. It uses liquid natural gas and liquid oxygen as propellant and has 550,000 pounds of sea level thrust. Unlike the AR-1 engine, partially funded by the government, the BE-4 " "DOES NOT need taxpayer money," says Blue Origin on its website.
Jessica Rye, a spokeswoman for the ULA, said that "because it was a competitive market, we can not comment for the moment." A Blue Origin spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
An official announcement on the agreement is scheduled for Thursday later.
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