On Thursday, January 16th, at 02:03 AM EST, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket took off on its maiden flight from Launch Advanced 36 at Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station. This was a momentous occasion for the corporate, because the two-stage heavy-lift rocket has been in improvement for a few years, includes a partially reusable design, and is significant to Bezos’ plan of “building a road to space.” Whereas the corporate didn’t retrieve the first-stage booster in the course of the flight take a look at, the rocket made it to orbit and efficiently deployed its payload -the Blue Ring Pathfinder – to orbit (which has since begun gathering knowledge).
Based on the newest assertion by Blue Origin, the second stage reached its remaining orbit following two profitable burns of its two BE-3U engines. The profitable launch of NG-1 implies that Blue Origin can now launch payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), an enormous milestone for the industrial house firm. “I’m extremely proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first try,” mentioned Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp in a company statement. “We knew touchdown our booster, So You’re Telling Me There’s a Likelihood, on the primary attempt was an formidable purpose. We’ll study lots from right now and check out once more at our subsequent launch this spring. Thanks to all of Workforce Blue for this unbelievable milestone.”
The rocket is known as in honor of NASA astronaut John Glenn, a member of the Mercury 7 and the primary American astronaut to orbit Earth as a part of the Liberty Bell 7 mission on July twenty first, 1961. That is consistent with Blue Origin’s historical past of naming their launch autos after well-known astronauts, such because the New Shepard rocket. This single-stage suborbital launch automobile is known as in honor of Alan Shepard, the primary American astronaut to go to house as a part of the Freedom 7 mission on Could fifth, 1961.
In contrast to the New Shepard, a completely reusable automobile used primarily for house tourism and know-how demonstrations and experiments, the New Glenn has a reusable first stage designed to land at sea on a barge named Jacklyn, or Touchdown Platform Vessel 1 (LPV1). Whereas the second stage just isn’t at the moment reusable, Blue Origin has been engaged on a reusable second stage (via Project Jarvis) since 2021. Whereas improvement started on the New Glenn in 2013, the rocket has been caught in “improvement hell” since 2016, shortly after it was first introduced.
In consequence, Blue Origin started lagging behind its primary competitor (SpaceX) and missed out on a number of billion {dollars} price of contracts. This included the corporate’s failure to safe a Nationwide Safety Area Launch (NSSL) procurement contract and the U.S. Area Drive’s termination of their launch know-how partnership in late 2020. In 2021, the continued delay led to Jeff Bezos asserting that he would step down as CEO of Amazon Net Companies (AWS) to take the helm at Blue Origin. By February 2024, the primary fully-developed New Glenn rocket was unveiled at Launch Advanced 36.
This mission not solely validated the launch automobile that’s very important to the corporate’s future plans in house. It additionally served as the primary of a number of demonstrations required to be licensed to be used by the National Security Space Launch program. “The success of the NG-1 mission marks a brand new chapter for launch operations on the Jap Vary, redefining commercial-military collaboration to keep up SLD 45’s place because the world’s premier gateway to house,” wrote Airman 1st Class Collin Wesson of the U.S. Area Drive (USSF) Area Launch Delta 45 (SLD 45) Public Affairs, shortly after the launch.
These plans embody the launch of Amazon’s proposed constellation of web satellites (Project Kuiper) and the creation of the Orbital Reef – a proposed industrial house station underneath improvement by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. They’ve additionally secured a contract with NASA to launch the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, two satellites that may research how photo voltaic wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic surroundings and drives atmospheric escape. NASA has additionally contracted with Blue Origin to offer payload and crewed launch providers for the Artemis Program.
This contains the cargo lander Blue Moon Mark 1 and the Mark 2 that may transport the Artemis V astronauts to the lunar floor. This flight and people that may observe place Blue Origin amongst different industrial house corporations poised to interrupt up the near-monopoly SpaceX has loved for over a decade. Stated Jarrett Jones, the Senior VP for Blue Origin’s New Glenn:
“At this time marks a brand new period for Blue Origin and for industrial house. We’re targeted on ramping our launch cadence and manufacturing charges. My heartfelt due to everybody at Blue Origin for the super quantity of labor in making right now’s success potential, and to our clients and the house neighborhood for his or her steady assist. We felt that immensely right now.”
Additional Studying: Blue Origin
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