Blue Origin to Build a 'Game Changer' Satellite before Humans Reach Mars

4 Sep 2026

News

USA TODAY - If NASA wants to send humans to Mars in the years ahead, the space agency will need a reliable way for those astronauts to communicate with Earth.

To that end, NASA has tapped Blue Origin to develop the agency's newest spacecraft that could by 2030 be orbiting the red planet and beaming back valuable data. Blue Origin, the space technology company that Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos founded in 2000, has a little more than two years to get the Mars orbiter ready for NASA.

Under a $700 million contract, the orbiter will primarily be tasked with providing navigation services and enabling communications with Earth as NASA eyes sending the first astronauts to Mars.

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Note: Blue Origin is headquartered in Kent.

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