14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the US Government have announced recently that they have taken the first preliminary steps needed to allow Kent, Washington-based aerospace company Blue Origin to launch its New Shepard unmanned capsule from a facility in Texas.
According to an early environmental report, allowing the company to launch its spacecraft from the West Texas launch site through 2019 will not impact the habitats and ecosystems around the site in any meaningful manner, Space News reports.
The document was released earlier this month, and posted to the US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation website. Blue Origin plans to conduct in excess of 245 test flights from the OCST facility in Culberson County, Texas.
Blue Origin is also developing a suborbital crew capsule as part of a Commercial Crew Development 2 program agreement with NASA. Other companies with similar contracts include Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC).