By Paul Gattis
Blue Origin, the space flight company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, donated $1 million to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, the center announced Wednesday.
Blue Origin opened a rocket engine facility in Huntsville in 2020.
The grant to the rocket center came from Blue Origin’s Club for the Future. The money will be earmarked for Space Camp and the museum.
The funds came from a $28 million donation to Blue Origin in an auction for a seat on its New Shepard, the company’s reusable space launch vehicle. New Shepard is scheduled to launch Bezos into space on July 20.
“Our recent auction for the first seat on New Shepard resulted in a donation of $28 million to our non-profit foundation, Club for the Future,” Bob Smith, Blue Origin CEO, said in the announcement. “This donation is enabling Club for the Future to rapidly expand its reach by partnering with 19 organizations to develop and inspire the next generation of space professionals. Our generation will build the road to space and these efforts will ensure the next generation is ready to go even further.”
The grant will bolster the rocket center, which plunged into dire financial straits last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rocket center raised more than $1 million through a Go Fund Me campaign that brought in donations from all 50 states and included a gift from Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
“We are extremely grateful for this donation that will help us move forward on the critical work we do in inspiring the next generation STEM workforce,” Kimberly Robinson, executive director and CEO of the rocket center, said in the announcement. “As a leader in the new era of space exploration, Blue Origin is breaking boundaries for space flight. We are honored to partner with them by actively participating in the Club for the Future’s Postcards to Space program and look forward to further collaborations as Blue expands its role in our community and on our campus. We will also be cheering as Space Camp Hall of Fame member Wally Funk embarks aboard New Shepard’s first human flight along with Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos next week.”
Funk, a member of the Mercury 13, attended Adult Space Academy twice and was inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame in 2019. Sixty years ago, she passed astronaut tests but was not allowed to fly because she is a woman. At 82 years old, she will be the oldest person to fly into space.