Blue Origin home
topic index
Alternate Name: Corn Ranch. Type: Suborbital Launch Site. Country: USA. Latitude: 31.33000 deg. Longitude: -104.90000 deg. Altitude: 1,390 m (4,560 ft).

Blue Origin was founded and funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of amazon.com. Commercial space passenger service would be conducted from a private spaceport at the 165,000-acre Corn Ranch, 40 kilometers north of Van Horn, west Texas. The launch point would be 8 kilometers west of Highway 54. The spaceport included a vehicle processing facility, a launch complex, vehicle landing and recovery area, an astronaut training facility, lodging, and other support facilities. The launch pad covered 3,000 square meters; the landing pad would be located 6.1 km north of it.


General / Launch Complex Unknown Chronology

2006 November 13 - Launch Vehicle: New Shepard. First test launch of New Shepard subscale prototype Spacecraft: New Shepard. Agency: Blue Origin. The test vehicle, dubbed Goddard, lifted off and landed vertically, and reached 90 m altitude. The launch, delayed twice for winds, came at the end of a three-day FAA-approved window. Video and pictures issued indicated that the test vehicle was a subscale (about 84%) version of the final manned vehicle; and that it used a hydrogen peroxide monopropellant rocket engines in place of the hydrogen peroxide/kerosene engines planned for the production vehicle.


Contact us with any corrections, additions, or comments.
Conditions for use of drawings, pictures, or other materials from this site..
To contact astronauts or cosmonauts.

© Mark Wade, 1997 - 2008 except where otherwise noted.