Examining Space X vs Blue Origin: A Comprehensive Comparative Study of Prominent Space Exploration Firms
Space is something beyond our imaginations. The efforts humans have exerted to explore such a limitless place since the beginning of time. Despite all these efforts, what humans have found is very little—almost nothing compared to what is concealed. Luckily, with time, knowledge became better, and so did technology. This enabled private space companies to emerge since the technology was accessible to everyone and space exploration wasn’t limited. This created a hope of getting all the answers to our questions. And also explanations of things that were so vague. However, since the industry started to get bigger and the number of companies increased, intense competition occurred. Among these fierce competitions, the one that has become the talk of town is the battle between Space X vs Blue Origin. Read on to learn everything about them and the clashes that always leave us on the edge of our seats.
The Initial Start of Space X
You definitely came across the name SpaceX somewhere, whether in the news, on the internet, in public, etc. But what if you are unaware of the name and haven’t heard about it before? Then you probably heard of the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, aka the most famous man at the moment. The history of SpaceX goes way back to 2001 when Musk was elected to the Mars Society's board of directors. The Mars Society is a non-profit organization that has a special interest in the future exploration of Mars. They hoped to find resources or, even better, a new and suitable home for future generations.
During this year, Elon Musk started to grow more interested in the red planet and space exploration in general. It is worth mentioning that he was known for his intelligence and deep knowledge. As during this time, he had some successful businesses, including PayPal. Day by day, Musk’s interest started to grow deeper. Therefore, he decided to sell his company and start SpaceX with a big investment that could cover all the technologies and projects. In 2002, SpaceX was born with the main goal of landing on Mars.
The Launch of Falcon 1
The period from 2002 until 2005 witnessed great work on the company’s first rocket, Falcon 1. However, it wasn’t until 2008 that the rocket successfully launched and reached orbit. This was the first step for SpaceX to become a trusted name and paved the way for many successes.
What made SpaceX even more recognized was their reusability program, which was one-of-a-kind. This program aimed to lessen the cost of launches by reusing rockets after recovery. The program proved to be effective and successful, and it was conducted multiple times.
SpaceX paved the way for other private space companies to follow its steps after showing great progress, determination, and innovation in a difficult field like space exploration.
Diving Into Blue Origin’s Origin
Another shining name and entrepreneur, another chasing dreams of exploring the space. Unlike SpaceX, Blue Origins might be unfamiliar to many people; however, we all know everything about the founder. Jeff Bezos is the proud founder and CEO of Amazon, which changed the idea of e-commerce and is currently the third-largest company in the world. Apparently, Bezos's ambitions didn’t end with being one of the leaders of the e-commerce industry. He had other dreams that were still persistently waiting to be achieved.
The company actually started in 2000. However, for over six or more years, no one knew about the nature of the company or its activities. Fast forward to 2011, when the company announced its first rocket launch testing and the current and future activities related to it.
Blue Origin's First Creation: New Shepard
Blue Origin took a special interest in commuting people to space rather than exploring. It aimed to give people a chance to commute to outer space with easy access. New Shepard was the name of the vehicle they worked on for six years since launching the company and for nearly four years after until they successfully landed it. Blue Origin’s ambitions didn’t end there, as they continued to work on other projects such as the BE-4 engine that was meant to power all their rockets and vehicles, and proved so effective that other companies started to use it as well. They were also working on New Glenn vehicles that would break all records by being the largest and most powerful rockets to be ever built and launched. It is expected to launch sometime in 2024
Blue Origin can take much credit for demolishing many restrictions on space exploration for individuals before corporations. As the company is working to make space travel as affordable and accessible as it can be to let people enjoy limitless space.
The Key Aspects That Differ Between Both Companies in This Galactic Competition
There is no doubt that the space exploration industry flourished under the influence of these two companies. As they have accomplished a lot and had many milestones that paved the way for others to walk the same road. Both companies might look like they are exactly the same, with the same activities and everything. However, they have some key distinctions in the Space X vs Blue Origin comparison
Vision and Purpose
The first key difference is the visions of both companies and the goals they are aiming for. For instance, the main purpose of Blue Origin is to focus more on making space more accessible to everyone. It is all about creating affordable and easy space trips for everyone. And from this emerged the term space tourism. On the other hand, SpaceX takes a different approach to making space accessible, focusing more on exploring new planets with a special focus on Mars and resources that could make life better The official mission of Space X is “to make life multi-planetary by establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars.” As illustrated, SpaceX has placed a great deal of dedication into expanding the possibilities of humans to conquer space and establish life on other planets.
Innovations
When it comes to innovations, both companies should get major credit for their great efforts and innovations, each in its own special way. For example, Blue Origins and SpaceX have emphasized space tourism, such as suborbital trips, as the next biggest trend in the space exploration industry. They aim to make it as easy as traveling to other countries. Additionally, and as we mentioned earlier, SpaceX has started with the reusability program, which Blue Origin adopted afterward to reduce the costs of rocket launching, which acted as a burden on all space companies.
Vehicles
Vehicles are a big deal when it comes to space exploration, and pretty much SpaceX aced this aspect. Although Blue Origin is a renowned company, it still hasn't done much compared to SpaceX rockets and vehicles. SpaceX has now started with Falcon 1 and kept progressing with the capabilities and load that the ship could take. They now have Falcon 9 which has launched over 30 times for medium load, Falcon Heavy, and Starship for super heavy load. On the other hand, Blue Origin has only two launch vehicles which are New Shepard and New Glenn where only New Shepard was launched. However, Blue Origin gets credit for the rocket engine development that proved great effectiveness.
The Future of Space Exploration: Should We Expect Other Parties in This Competition?
To give you a short, simple, and brief answer, yes. In the very near future, the competition in the space exploration field won’t be limited to SpaceX and Blue Origin only. There are now many companies that are racing with new technologies and innovations to take over and accomplish more. For instance, a very near candidate especially with Blue Origin is Virgin Galactic. Although the latter was founded in 2004, it started to gain recognition recently with many successful launches and is starting to become a remarkable name, especially for space tourism. Thus, we can expect other competitions other than Space X vs Blue Origin.
En Fin
The competition between Space X vs Blue Origin has sparked a new period of remarkable progress and innovation in the previously unexplored territory of space exploration. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has the extremely ambitious ambition to establish a human settlement on Mars, and Blue Origin, led by Jeff Bezos, anticipates a future where people can live in space. These goals have sparked a competitive spirit that goes beyond Earth.
While the space race is certainly exciting, its effects will be felt far beyond the confines of humankind. The creativity shown by SpaceX and Blue Origin has thrilled the imaginations of would-be astronauts, engineers, and scientists. With dedication, creativity, and compassion, even the most daring goals can be achieved, as shown by this competition.
And while we still watch this thrilling cosmic game, we can’t help but wonder if there is ever a future where a fruitful collaboration happens. Imaging major space titans like SpaceX and Blue Origin joining forces, bright minds, efforts, and innovation to come up with something ten times better and more powerful leaves us nothing but hope for the field of space exploration.