Blue Origin CEO and founder Jeff Bezos stunned SATELLITE 2017 before the Opening General Session by bringing Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer on stage to announce Eutelsat as the first customer of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket set to debut in 2020.
“We think that the role of an industry leader is to stimulate competition so that there is a stream of innovation and access to space is easier. Once the opportunity of Blue Origin presented itself, we jumped on it,” Belmer said.
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The agreement with Blue Origin covers the launch of a geostationary satellite in the 2021 to 2022 timeframe. The New Glenn launcher will be compatible with virtually all Eutelsat satellites. The two-stage variant of New Glenn can take 13 metric tons to GTO and 45 metric tons to LEO; the booster stage is designed for operable reuse.
Bezos described the success of Amazon as a “lottery winning” — and says that he’s now investing those winnings into Blue Origin. His long-term vision is millions of people living and working in space. “Our motto is ‘Gradatim Ferociter’ — or ‘step by step, ferociously.'” Bezos believes that operational reusability is the key to lowering the cost of launch.
“When we do achieve that goal, we will reach a new equilibrium in this industry. Once launch costs are lower in the future, satellites will be less precious so you can take more technological risks. You’ll place them more frequently and their lifetimes will be shorter. The new equilibrium will be a much larger industry.” VS
