Back in the bad old days of the Cold War, many “Kremlinologists” were forced to divine changes in the Soviet government and policy by keeping track of who was on the podium to review parades in Red Square, and just what was being shown on parade. That’s an easy task compared to figuring out what Blue Origin, the highly-secretive space startup funded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is up to. Alan Boyle of MSNBC was able to pry out of a Blue Origin spokesman (who knew the company even had a spokesman?) that the company is “right on track” to begin tests at its West Texas facility starting late this year. What sort of tests? Blue Origin wouldn’t say. Will the public be notified about the tests? Blue Origin said probably not. The company is in the process of moving into a new facility in the Seattle suburb of Kent that Boyle cased last week.
Another, smaller, space tourism venture that has also been quiet in recent months has offered an update. Flight International reported in this week’s issue that a “corporate regroup” by Sprague Astronautics has delayed the first flight of its Altaris vehicle from late 2006 to the first quarter of 2007. According to the report, “Investors demanded that prospective space tourism company Aera be merged with its sister companies, which include Sprague Astronautics”, hence the delay. Sprague says that its RLE-40 LOX/kerosene engine, designed to produce 178,000 newtons of thrust, will be tested in the next 60 days at either NASA’s Stennis Space Center or an unspecified private facility in Texas. Given the lack of detailed information about Sprague’s progress on Altaris (and given the difficulties in developing reliable rocket engines, something that companies like SpaceX know a thing or two about), that 1Q2007 date still looks awfully optimistic.
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