COCOA BEACH, Fla. — Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has spread its wings.
New Glenn launched for the first time this morning (January 16), rising from a pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station here on Florida’s Space Coast at 2:03 a.m. ET (7:03 GMT). After about 12 and a half minutes, the rocket’s upper stage reached orbit. The company calls it NG-1, and it is the main target of today’s test flight.
“We were able to orbit safely,” Arian Cornell, Blue Origin’s vice president of space systems, said during the company’s launch webcast. What a day! ”
Blue Origin also sought to land New Glenn’s reusable first stage on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, which will be called “Jacklin” after the mother of company founder Jeff Bezos. are. The booster succeeded in igniting its three engines during reentry burn as planned, but failed to land.
“We didn’t make a booster landing, but we came pretty close,” Cornell said. “We collected an awful lot of data.”
It would have been amazing if the landing had been successful. Prior to the launch, the company repeatedly emphasized that this was a secondary goal and was unlikely to be achieved with NG-1.
Related: Blue Origin: Everything you need to know about the commercial spaceflight company
Like many rockets, the 320-foot (98-meter) tall New Glenn had a long journey to its launch pad. The first flight was originally expected to take place in 2020, but the development of the rocket’s powerful BE-4 first stage engine delayed the schedule.
There were a few more delays in the homestretch. Today’s launch was originally scheduled for January 10, but Blue Origin postponed the schedule by 72 hours due to rough seas in the area where the booster was scheduled to land. A Jan. 13 launch attempt was aborted due to ice buildup on one of the rocket’s power units, and Blue Origin postponed its next launch until this morning.
The new Glenn’s reusable first stage could help it compete with SpaceX’s venerable Falcon 9, the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket. Blue Origin aims to launch each New Glenn booster at least 25 times and already has customers ranging from NASA, various U.S. government agencies, AST SpaceMobile, and other telecommunications companies.
New Glenn has also been selected to launch Amazon’s Kuiper broadband internet satellite project, a potential competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink mega-constellation. Amazon already has licenses to launch more than 3,000 Kuiper satellites.
Blue Origin and Amazon were both founded by Bezos, who has flown into suborbital space aboard the company’s New Shepard small space tourism rocket.
New Glenn can carry a 50 ton (45 metric ton) payload to low Earth orbit (LEO). SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket also features a reusable first stage booster and can lift approximately 70 tons (64 tons) to LEO.
If all goes as planned, NG-1 will help qualify rockets for the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, which links U.S. military and intelligence spacecraft with commercial launch providers. . NSSL’s launch will also include GPS, communications, and weather satellites that provide data and services to the U.S. government.
New Glenn was originally scheduled to launch NASA’s twin-engine ESCAPADE Mars rover on NG-1, but the space agency decided to postpone the mission until the rocket was proven worthy of flight. ESCAPADE is expected to be available by spring 2025.
Instead, flying aboard New Glenn’s first mission was a test version of Blue Origin’s upcoming “Blue Ring” spacecraft.
The “Blue Ring Pathfinder” demonstrator remains connected to New Glenn’s second stage and is designed to validate the Blue Ring’s communications, space data collection, tracking and command systems, Blue Origin said. I am writing. NG-1 Mission Description If all goes according to plan, such data collection will last approximately six hours on NG-1.
This debut flight will help Blue Origin refine and develop production versions of the spacecraft for future missions. Blue Ring is being developed as part of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Orbital Logistics Program. DIU is a U.S. Department of Defense organization dedicated to developing and commercializing emerging technologies for national security.
To this end, Blue Origin is developing the Blue Ring to meet DIU’s needs for “large utility multi-track logistics vehicles” (m-OLVs). The Blue Ring, or whatever vehicle is ultimately chosen to fill the role, will provide “low-cost, responsive access to geostationary orbit (GEO) and other exotic orbits beyond low-Earth orbit.” It will be designed to do so. DIU statement.
In other words, Blue Ring will serve as a platform for other satellites. It can carry approximately 6,600 pounds (3,000 kilograms) with 13 different payload adapters.
According to some researchers, the spacecraft could carry payloads to geostationary orbit, lunar orbit (orbit near or around the moon), or even interplanetary orbit. Blue Origin Description.
However, all that remains to be seen. The immediate message from today’s flight is that a powerful new orbital-class rocket is proving to be in the air.
“With Blue Origin, the next era of spaceflight is ushered in,” Cornell concluded the NG-1 launch webcast. “We look forward to seeing you at our next launch. We’re just getting started.”
