Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space venture Blue Origin is looking to expand beyond the US, and is searching international markets for a launch site, according to a report on Thursday.
The company is also on the lookout for "new partnerships and acquisitions in Europe and beyond" in a bid to scale up its space services with launch and engine businesses, the Financial Times reported.
"We're looking for anything we can do to acquire, to scale up to better serve our customers," Bob Smith, chief executive, Blue Origin was quoted as saying.
"It's not a function of size -- rather how much it accelerates our road map of what we're trying to get done," he added.
The company is also looking at acquisitions and partnerships in areas from manufacturing to software and wants to expand services in new regions such as Europe.
While "no location had yet been chosen" for the new launch site…"I think there's a great opportunity in Europe," said Smith. "It's far less clear to us how to actually sell space services in Europe than it is in the US."
But Europe can open new avenues for Blue Origin as the continent is currently facing limited launch availability with the imminent retirement of the Ariane 5 rocket, and only two rockets remaining Ariane 6, which has yet to fly, and Vega-C.
Besides developing rockets and engines to take cargo and crew to space, Blue Origin is also leading a consortium to build a commercial space station. It was awarded a $3.4 billion NASA contract last month to build a lunar lander to take humans to the moon's surface, the report said.
Blue Origin's success has been with the New Shepard rocket which has aced 22 missions to suborbital space, including six crewed missions that carried 31 space tourists.
However, even after being the first company to successfully launch, land and reuse a rocket, it has been trailing against Rocket Lab and Elon Musk's SpaceX, which developed reliable rockets capable of carrying satellites and other payload into orbit.
Both have successfully carried out several crewed and unmanned missions to the International Space Station.
New AI algorithm to predict risk of cardiovascular events, heart-related death
A team of researchers in South Korea has developed a novel artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithm that uses electrocardiograph (ECG)2 data to predict the risk of cardiovascular events, and heart-related death.
India successfully flight-tests indigenously-developed vertically-launched Surface-to-Air Missile
In a boost to India's precision firepower, the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Navy conducted the successful flight-test of indigenously-developed Vertically-Launched Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (VLSRSAM) on Wednesday, an official statement said.
Unplanned welcome: Dolphins greet astronauts as they return home after extended space mission
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, along with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, have returned to Earth after a lengthy journey that turned a planned eight-day mission into a nine-month in space.
Stranded US astronauts return to Earth, after nine months in space
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying them and two other astronauts—Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—splashed down into the waters off the coast of Florida state just minutes before 6 p.m., as NASA had announced.
Google to acquire cloud security platform Wiz for $32 billion
Tech major Google on Tuesday announced to acquire Wiz, a leading cloud security platform headquartered in New York, for $32 billion in an all-cash transaction.
Ahead of Sunita William’s ‘homecoming’, PM Modi pens letter to India’s illustrious daughter
As the NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore begin their journey back home from space, after staying ‘stranded’ at the International Space Station (ISS) for about nine months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written a letter to one of India’s most illustrious daughters hoping for her safe return.
Sunita Williams set to return to Earth tomorrow
With the pair of US astronauts stranded for more than nine months on the International Space Station (ISS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed that the duo will return to Earth on Tuesday evening.
SpaceX crew-10 docks at ISS, to bring home Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore this week
SpaceX's Crew-10 mission successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, bringing hope for the return of two NASA astronauts -- Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore -- who have been stuck in orbit for months.