Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos has canceled plans to turn an ocean cargo ship into a site for the disposal of marine rockets, CNN Business reports. A special feature of the ship is also that it is named after the billionaire’s mother, Jacklyn Bezos.
Bezos bought the 180-meter cargo ship Jacklyn in 2018. In 2020, the billionaire announced that the ship would be converted into a base for re-capturing the boosters of the first stage of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket. The ship was christened a bottle of champagne personally by Jacklyn Bezos.
“The New Glenn rocket will return “home” to Jacklyn after each flight. I couldn’t think of a more appropriate name, because the best place to go back to is home to my mother,” Bezos wrote on Instagram after the grand opening.
But, unfortunately, it happens that some gifts are too expensive even for mom. Currently, Blue Origin is abandoning the project due to financial difficulties. That’s because the New Glenn project is already several years behind schedule. Blue Origin needs to quickly find a new solution to save the project. Company spokeswoman Linda Mills said that the company is looking for more “cost-effective” means of restoring rockets.
Blue Origin wants to compete financially with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Therefore, the company is actively looking for ways to reuse the first stages of rockets in order to make launches as cheap as possible. Musk’s company is currently using special barges to “catch” its reusable Falcon 9 boosters — this method dramatically reduces the still high cost of space launches.
At the same time, Blue Origin still intends to put the New Glenn spacecraft into orbit by the end of 2022, although it may be difficult without a re-capture site. As for Jacklyn, the fate of the abandoned ship remains unclear.
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