The new heavy-lift launcher was supposed to take its first flight later this year but that was taking into account they would get the recent NSSL contracts from the Department of Defense which ended up going to SpaceX and ULA. Now the company has revised its plan for when it will debut its new launcher.
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The secretive rocket company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been developing rockets to compete in both the space tourism and commercial launch markets named New Glenn after the first American to reach orbit, John Glenn.
The rocket has been in development for almost 9 years and since then we’ve only seen rare glimpses of the current stages of development. They plan to make their debut launch of the rocket later this year and we’ve luckily got a glimpse of what will be used to test their new launchpad for this coming flight.
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While SpaceX earns most of the headlines for booster recovery efforts, Blue Origin also plans to launch and recover their orbital rocket New Glenn as early as this year. Blue Origin currently has two rockets in various stages of development, and a sentimental step toward flying the larger of the two rockets was reached this week.
Blue Origin’s sub-orbital rocket New Shepherd currently flies and lands, but it’s still in a stage of testing before it flies paying customers to space and back. They also have been developing the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket that is already competing against SpaceX and ULA for commercial and government launch contracts.
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NASA’s Launch Services Program is designed to help launch uncrewed rockets that deliver spacecraft into orbit or farther out into the universe. The latest company to benefit from the program is Blue Origin, as NASA has announced that the company will be awarded a Launch Services II contract.
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Blue Origin is not the most public-facing rocket company on the planet.
Try to take a close-up shot of the front of Blue Origin’s Orbital Launch System manufacturing facility in Florida, and a very friendly security guard will insist that you immediately exit the parking lot.
This doesn’t deter space fans from closely following the rocket company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Starting today, Blue Origin is taking a cue from the billionaire’s other company and launching an online store.
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Blue Origin announced the completion of its 7 meter fairing for New Glenn today with two behind-the-scenes videos.
Blue Origin isn’t just working on New Glenn, a giant rocket with double the usable volume of existing rockets.
The Jeff Bezos-owned space company is testing its New Shepard with a goal of taking paying customers to space. Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said this to Miriam Kramer at Axios today regarding that mission:
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