Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to take NASA gear into space

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin seems to be gearing up to send its New Shepard rocket on its tenth mission. The take-off will take place from the firm's Corn Ranch landing pad in West Texas. The rocket will carry NASA-sponsored payloads into suborbital space, where they offload before returning back.

Backed by Jeff Bezos' personal wealth, Blue Origin focuses on developing reusable rockets with an aim to trim down the cost of access to space. This will be the fourth flight for this particular New Shepard, and the firm will aim to recover the booster.

Bezos, back in October said, "When you land under rocket power, it's like you're balancing a broomstick on the tip of your finger."

The last time a Blue Origin rocket took flight was back in July 2018, when the company tested a safety mechanism for its future manned missions. After passing the Karman line that delineates outer space, the spacecraft managed to deploy the high-speed escape maneuver in case the booster runs into some trouble.

Previously, the company bagged a major contract from NASA. Its BE-4 engine will lock horns with Elon Musk's SpaceX with its pricing and will power United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur suite of rockets. The first launch is expected to take place in the year 2020.

Bezos, who claims to fund his rocket company by selling about $1 billion worth of his own stake in Amazon every year, faced competition from Aeroject Rocketdyne, which provides propulsion technology for NASA as well as existing ULA rockets.