Blue Origin..that other space company

[spuwho]

While SpaceX gets all the press and credit for their recent successes with the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule....quietly, secretly, behind the scenes is a small company called Blue Origin. Funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, they are developing the "New Shepard" capsule and developing from scratch a whole new rocket engine using LOX and Hydrogen.

They completed a major milestone with a full launch of the New Shepard and taking it to 307,000 feet before it came back for a parachute landing in the desert of Texas.  With the recent desire of the space firms to get more "green", there has been efforts to use non-petro products for fuel (SpaceX uses Kerosene & LOX). Blue Origin is considered a leader in "green" launch abilities.

Look for Blue Origin to make launches from Florida soon.

https://www.youtube.com/v/yvij2l6jJTk

[Jason]

The competition is heating up!

[spuwho]

In response SpaceX is currently working on a LOX / Methane  rocket engine.

Methane is considered more accesible in deep space as it can be manfuctured easily. It also happens to reside on Mars in large quantities.