• Blue Origin has announced a new venture called Blue Ring, which it describes as a “spacecraft platform.”
• The new endeavour will focus on logistics and deliveries for missions orbiting Earth.
• While still in development, Blue Ring could host payloads of more than 3 000kg.

Ever since Sir Richard Branson technically pipped Jeff Bezos in the billionaire space race, the work being done at Blue Origin has proved a bit of a mystery. That was until this week when the company announced a venture called Blue Ring.

While no mention has been made of the previous tech giant that Bezos headed up, it’s clear that there is some Amazon inspiration behind Blue Ring, as it is described as “a spacecraft platform focused on providing in-space logistics and delivery.”

“Blue Ring serves commercial and government customers and can support a variety of missions in medium Earth orbit out to the cislunar region and beyond. The platform provides end-to-end services that span hosting, transportation, refueling, data relay, and logistics, including an ‘in-space’ cloud computing capability. Blue Ring can host payloads of more than 3,000 kg and provides unprecedented delta-V capabilities and mission flexibility,” the company added in a blog post.

As such, it looks like one of the big projects for Blue Origin moving forward will be to support many of the missions and satellites that are currently orbiting Earth.

Given the sheer volume of launches that have been happening of late and the number of space agencies vying for supremacy in space, the new division of Blue Origin makes a lot of sense, especially when it comes to serving as a middle-man for critical solutions and connectivity.

“Blue Ring addresses two of the most difficult challenges in spaceflight today: growing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on-orbit. We’re offering our customers the ability to easily access and maneuver through a variety of orbits cost-effectively while having access to critical data to ensure a successful mission,” highlighted Paul Ebertz, SVP of Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems.

It still remains to be seen when Blue Ring will officially be up and running, but Blue Origin has stated its latest intent.