NASA Awards Blue Origin $700 Million Mars Network Contract for 2030 Deployment
Updated
Updated · Kent Reporter · Sep 9
NASA Awards Blue Origin $700 Million Mars Network Contract for 2030 Deployment
3 articles · Updated · Kent Reporter · Sep 9
Summary
$700 million will fund Blue Origin to build NASA’s Mars Telecommunications Network, with the system slated to begin operating in Mars orbit by 2030.
NASA is replacing an aging relay backbone led by Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, seeking higher-bandwidth communications and navigation as Mars missions move toward human exploration.
Blue Origin plans to use Mars Telecommunications Orbiters based on its Blue Ring platform, which the company says will relay mission communications, scientific data, imagery and spacecraft navigation between Mars and Earth.
The award expands NASA’s push to extend communications services beyond Earth and the Moon, while giving Blue Origin a major step toward Jeff Bezos’ goal of becoming a broader space-infrastructure provider.
Why is NASA shifting its deep-space communication infrastructure to private commercial companies rather than building its own next-generation Mars orbiters?
Will Rocket Lab's formal protest delay Blue Origin's ambitious 2028 deadline to deliver NASA's crucial Mars internet network?
How will Blue Origin's new hybrid-propulsion platform survive harsh Martian radiation to relay critical data for future human missions?