Beyond earth’s bounds: How Blue Origin is leveraging the AWS Cloud for AI-powered space exploration

Blue Origin is transforming space exploration with a mission to make space access routine, reliable, and cost-effective. In January 2025, the company achieved a historic milestone with its first orbital spaceflight—the New Glenn 1 (NG-1) rocket launch—powered by AWS GovCoud (US) and generative AI.

In this post, we explore how Blue Origin achieved this mission using AWS GovCloud (US), AI, high performance computing (HPC), and real-time innovation.

 Mission overview and AWS integration

The successful NG-1 mission marks Blue Origin’s entry into orbital spaceflight and advances its ambitious space initiatives, from establishing human presence on the Moon to enabling in-space resource utilization. The mission’s Blue Ring Pathfinder payload demonstrated key technologies for Blue Origin’s Spacecraft Carrier, setting the stage for upcoming New Glenn missions that will carry Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 cargo lander and Mark 2 crewed lander to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) supported this historic mission at every stage: powering pre-launch simulations and testing, managing mission control operations, processing real-time flight telemetry data, and streamlining launch certification through generative AI. On January 16, 2025, these capabilities came together as New Glenn lifted off from Space Launch Complex 36 at U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 at Cape Canaveral, successfully achieving both orbital insertion and payload deployment.

Watch the NG-1 launch recap:

Mission certification and payload testing

The NG-1 mission served as the first of Blue Origin’s certification flights for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, managed by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office. The NSSL program enables commercial launch providers to deliver space support for U.S. Department of Defense, national security, and other government missions after completing a certification process.

Additionally, the mission’s primary payload, the Blue Ring Pathfinder, demonstrated technologies for Blue Origin’s future in-space mobility system. This technology validation mission tested capabilities for the full Blue Ring Platform, which will provide multi-orbit transportation, refueling, and data relay services. The platform is designed to offer space logistics services, including satellite deployment and orbital transfers, while incorporating computing capabilities. AWS delivered the infrastructure Blue Origin needed for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) regulatory compliance, and to support pre-launch simulations and testing, cloud-managed operations centers, and real-time telemetry for the mission.

Pre-launch testing and launch operations

High performance computing (HPC) on AWS helps customers model complex simulations, such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), in a fraction of the time compared to on-premises computing. Scalable HPC resources let customers explore more design options and refine their rockets’ performance before actual launches.

During pre-launch preparation, Blue Origin leveraged AWS HPC on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) in AWS GovCloud for Monte Carlo simulations for mission planning, identifying optimal trajectory based on mission parameters like payload weight, Moon position at time of launch, vehicle weight based on propellant load, and similar combinations. The team used Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for data collection from NG1 launch simulations.

These capabilities helped Blue Origin engineers accelerate development processes, reduce costs, and improve the accuracy of spacecraft designs and prototypes.

To support actual launch operations, AWS Professional Services worked with Blue Origin to implement the Blue Origin Ground System Architecture which connects ground and space communications to support on-orbit missions. Built on the AWS cloud mission operations center (CMOC) solution, the Blue Origin Ground System Architecture successfully managed mission operations and data management throughout the flight.

Accelerating launch and flight certification with generative AI on AWS

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires certification for commercial space launches, including safety reviews of spacecraft design, construction, and launch procedures to ensure public safety. This process involves aggregating, analyzing, and updating thousands of pages of documentation, which typically takes several weeks to complete.

The Blue Origin team used Anthropic Claude Sonnet large language models (LLMs) on Amazon Bedrock to streamline document aggregation and preparation needed for their launch certification application. By using Amazon Bedrock, Blue Origin was able to shave days off the certification process, consolidating weeks of preparation into a significantly shorter timeframe. As a result, Blue Origin was granted a five-year license from the FAA. The availability of these generative AI solutions in AWS GovCloud (US) was a key factor in Blue Origin’s decision to choose AWS as their core platform for generative AI, targeting reduction in software testing and 100 percent AI-assisted coding.

Real-time mission support and telemetry innovation

Telemetry is the collection and transmission of data from remote points to receiving stations for monitoring and analysis. In space missions, this data is used for tracking spacecraft position, monitoring system performance, and ensuring mission safety.

During the New Glenn launch, Blue Origin used telemetry to acquire data and visual information about rocket performance, spacecraft health, and mission status. This data enabled real-time monitoring and decision-making while supporting post-flight analysis to inform future designs and missions.

AWS Elemental MediaLive and Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS) powered the real-time telemetry data streaming for the mission, handling over 370,000 concurrent viewers across multiple platforms. The broadcast reached 62,000 viewers on YouTube, 288,000 viewers on X/Twitter (generating 1,000 reposts), and 20,000 viewers through Amazon IVS.

Looking ahead

The New Glenn NG-1 launch represents the start of Blue Origin’s orbital flight program, with 80 flights scheduled including missions for NASA’s Artemis program and Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite constellation. The collaboration between AWS and Blue Origin combines cloud computing capabilities with space operations, from mission control to certification processes, enabling faster mission preparation, streamlined operations, and scalable space services.

Learn more about how AWS supports space missions on this webpage or contact us to discuss your space and satellite requirements.