Blue Origin gets experimental permit

Alan Boyle of MSNBC reports that the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) has awarded an experimental permit to Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ secretive suborbital launch venture. The one-year permit allows Blue Origin to begin powered test flights from its facility in West Texas, over 30 kilometers north of the town of Van Horn. As Boyle notes, there was little doubt that Blue Origin would get the permit, since there were virtually no environmental concerns and no local opposition. Blue Origin got the permit even though AST is still working through the rulemaking process for awarding such permits; the office was only granted the authority for such permits at the end of 2004 with the passage of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act.