Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin’s successful eighth mission test its New Shepherd rocket in Texas. Blue Origin, LLC is an American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability. Blue Origin is employing an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its prior work. The company motto is Gradatim Ferociter, Latin for Step by Step, Ferociously. Billionaire Jeff Bezos has stated that he considers Blue Origin to be the most important work he is doing.