Reusability does not end when the engines shut off — the hardest steering happens on the way down, through the atmosphere, at high speed. US11649073B2, granted to Blue Origin, LLC on May 16, 2023, claims "control surfaces for use with high speed vehicles, and associated systems and methods."
The CPC is a revealing blend: B64G 1/62 (atmospheric re-entry arrangements), B64C 9/00 (aircraft control surfaces), B64G 1/24 (attitude control), and — notably — F42B 10/64 and F42B 15/01 (projectile/missile control surfaces and guided missiles). That space-meets-missile crossover reflects a hard truth: the aerodynamics of a fast atmospheric vehicle are the aerodynamics of a fast atmospheric vehicle, whether it is a returning booster or a weapon.
The mechanism is aerodynamic steering under brutal conditions. At high speed and high dynamic pressure, control surfaces face enormous loads and intense heating, yet must deflect precisely to keep the vehicle on its descent corridor and oriented for landing. The claim covers the surfaces and the systems and methods that drive them — the actuation and control logic, not just the metal.
For a reusable-launch program, this is enabling IP. The booster that lands is worth far more than the one that is thrown away, and getting it home requires controlled flight through a regime that punishes any error.
A security-aware note from this desk: the F42B classifications place part of this art adjacent to missile guidance, where the public patent record only shows so much and the most sensitive work is classified and absent. This grant covers Blue Origin's specific high-speed control-surface systems for its vehicles; it is not a window into weapons programs. But the shared classification is a useful reminder of how thin the technical wall between reusable-launch and hypersonic-weapon aerodynamics really is.