Blue Origin’s latest mission, “Taking Up Space,” has drawn widespread attention as the first all-female spaceflight since 1963. Part of the company’s New Shepard program, the launch marked the program’s 31st overall flight and 11th human mission. With growing interest around the launch, many are wondering whether the Blue Origin rocket is owned by Elon Musk and SpaceX.
In this article, we will explore who owns the Blue Origin rocket and its recent launch.
Is the Blue Origin rocket owned by Elon Musk and SpaceX?
No, the Blue Origin rocket is not owned by Elon Musk or SpaceX. It is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who established Blue Origin in 2000. Blue Origin has been focused on commercial space travel, including suborbital flights on its New Shepard rocket.
New Shepard is a reusable launch vehicle designed for short spaceflights. The rocket carries a capsule that reaches more than 62 miles above Earth, offering passengers a brief experience of weightlessness. The trip lasts about 11 minutes in total. The flights do not have any pilots on board, making them entirely dependent on the capsule’s automated systems.
On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin garnered significant attention as it prepared to send its first all-female crew to space from its launch facility in Texas. The NS-31 mission includes six women: Aisha Bowe, Kerianne Flynn, Gayle King, Amanda Nguyen, Katy Perry, and Lauren Sánchez.
Blue Origin has been flying passengers since 2021. Its first flight included Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, Oliver Daemen, and Mary Wallace Funk. Other notable riders include William Shatner, Michael Strahan, and many more. New Shepard flights were temporarily paused in September 2022 after an uncrewed failure. The Federal Aviation Administration later required 21 corrective actions. After making those changes, Blue Origin resumed flights in May 2024.
