Wednesday Blue Origin transported a New Glenn booster to LC-36 from its rocket factory just outside Kennedy Space Center‘s gates. We aren’t certain how much of this booster is flight hardware, however, the more hardware we see the higher we believe chances of a launch this year is possible.
Blue Origin’s moves New Glenn booster to LC-36
If it seems we’ve gotten the most New Glenn updates in the last few months than ever before, that’s because we have. While the rocket has been far delayed from its original launch date in 2020, its current 2024 date has way more merit now than it did before these recent updates.
Last year we saw the first public tank section of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket outside of its Florida rocket factory. On Wednesday, that tank section was seen joined up with the aft and forward section making it a full rocket stage. This was moved from the rocket factory to LC-36 and into the massive integration facility there.
Blue Origin is tasked to launch its first New Glenn rocket for NASA later this year, called ESCAPADE. The dual spacecraft payload will be sent out to Mars during its transfer window with Earth and will mark off a frenzy of firsts for Blue Origin all in one flight.
NASA is expecting to launch its satellites in late 2024, a timeframe we’re usually skeptical of for rocket launches, especially from new providers. However, we are starting to see pieces come together like this rocket stage and a fairing moved out to the launch side.
Blue Origin stated that the first flight vehicle would be at its integration facility, most likely meaning LC-36, by the end of 2023. Not all of this booster is flight hardware, photos captured by local photographers show “NOT FOR FLIGHT” painted on the forward section. This means that at least that part will need to be replaced before flight.
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New CEO shares photos of second stage
David Limp, Blue Origin’s new CEO, shared images on his LinkedIn profile photos not just of the new booster tucked inside LC-36’s hanger but also of the second stage!
While there’s still a lot of work ahead, we’ve recently hit a couple of exciting and visible milestones for our forthcoming New Glenn rocket – and customers entrusting us with their payloads. Our first and second stage hardware have both left the factory and are now at our Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral. That 8-mile drive yesterday was fun to watch, but I am sure stressful for the truck driver and crew.
David Limp, Blue origin CEO
This sounds like the hardware we saw, outside of the forward section of the booster, are destined to be flight hardware. Also, can we just reflect on the humans for scale standing next to New Glenn’s second stage? New Glenn is going to be a big rocket!
We have yet to see any hardware make it out to Blue Origin’s launch pad in Florida, only the large transporter erector. We expect we will finally soon see hardware out at the pad for and test to begin before ESCAPADE’s launch later this year.
NASA is taking a pretty big risk putting payloads like this on a rocket’s first flight. However this is becoming a new normal for the agency. Blue Origin is no stranger to spaceflight though, it has over 20 flights under its belt with its suborbital New Shepard rocket. Also the BE-4 engines powering New Glenn, have already flown on ULA’s Vulcan rocket earlier this month.
We are spoiled by the high test cadence and openness of SpaceX’s Starship rocket. Similar to ULA’s Vulcan rocket, a success on New Glenn’s first flight is highly anticipated and a must to get a start of any return on Jeff Bezos’ investments in the short term.
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