Blue Origin Awarded $11.7 Million Space Force Deal to Study Rocket Cargo

The Jeff Bezos-founded aerospace company received a firm-fixed-price modification to define how its systems could move cargo by rocket, lifting the contract's total value to $13.1 million.

First Published: July 31, 2026, 1:22 PM ET

MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA — Blue Origin LLC received an $11.7 million Space Force modification to study how its rockets could haul military cargo, the largest single step yet in a two-year-old research contract.

The firm-fixed-price modification lifted the deal’s cumulative value to $13.1 million from $1,366,691, according to war.gov. The award tasks the company with defining requirements for how Blue Origin systems and technologies could support a rocket cargo mission, as announced on war.gov. Fiscal 2025 research funds of $1.1 million and fiscal 2026 research funds of $10.5 million were obligated at the time of award.

Blue Origin, the private space company founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn vehicle from its Kent, Washington, headquarters, according to wikipedia.org. The firm employed about 11,000 people as of 2023 and reached orbit with the first New Glenn launch on January 16, 2025, according to wikipedia.org.

Work will span Merritt Island, Florida, and Kent, Washington, and is expected to finish by October 29, 2027. The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. The rocket cargo concept aims to deliver supplies anywhere on Earth within hours by launching them on a rocket rather than moving them by ship or aircraft.

The study work positions Blue Origin to compete for larger follow-on funding, while narrowing the field for rivals chasing the same point-to-point delivery mission. The Space Force gains a second commercial path to test whether reusable rockets can move materiel at wartime speed. For a general reader, the award signals where defense research dollars are flowing as the Pentagon weighs commercial rockets for logistics that trucks, ships, and cargo planes handle today.

Any operational rocket cargo system remains years away, and this contract funds paperwork and requirements rather than launches. This is the first award to Blue Origin in 2026 and the 47th Department of Defense contract booked in Florida this year. It is not the company’s largest deal, a record that stands at nearly $2.4 billion. It was one of nine Department of Defense contracts announced nationwide on July 31, 2026.

Military interest in rocket-borne logistics is not new. The Air Force Research Laboratory launched its Rocket Cargo program under the Vanguard research initiative to test whether commercial heavy-lift rockets could deliver up to 100 tons across the globe, and it has funded studies with multiple launch providers, according to factoriesinspace.com.

The Air Force Research Laboratory will decide on any additional funding or a follow-on phase for the study. A date for that decision has not been announced.

Bezos has poured his own fortune into space for a quarter century, mirroring an earlier age of patrons who bankrolled flight. Blue Origin flew its Goddard test vehicle to 285 feet in November 2006 and did not carry its first crew until July 20, 2021, when Bezos rode a 10-minute suborbital hop across the Kármán line, according to wikipedia.org. That slow, self-funded march drew comparisons to SpaceX and prompted a 2023 leadership change. It left Bezos holding a company now bidding for the Pentagon’s most ambitious logistics experiment.

This contract represents the 1st contract awarded to Blue Origin LLC, in 2026, bringing the company’s total contract value for the year to $11,707,762. It is also the 47th Department of Defense contract awarded in Florida during 2026. While this is not the largest contract ever awarded to Blue Origin LLC, whose record stands at $2,386,234,812, it is notable within the Air Force portfolio. Specifically, it falls between the 2026 Air Force portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $17 and maximum of $5,600,000,000. Overall, this award was announced among 9 Department of Defense contracts issued nationwide on July 31, 2026.