Monday, December 16, 2013

Blue Origin Loses Bid To Lease Space Shuttle Launch Pad

Blue Origin, the commercial rocket development firm owned by Jeff Bezos, has lost a bid to lease the historic Kennedy Space Center launch pad used to put the Apollo and Space Shuttle into space. According to NASA, it had decided to allow Blue Origin competitor SpaceX--owned by fellow tech mogul Elon Musk--to negotiate for a lease for the launchpad, which launched Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and all 135 space shuttle missions. Blue Origin had protested the move, saying that the agency had favored SpaceX in the deal. Blue Origin had sought for a shared lease of the launch pad.