2nd launch of Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket delayed to Aug. 15 at the earliest
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket will be groundbound for at least another couple of months.
Jeff Bezos' aerospace company had been targeting late spring for the second launch of the 320-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn, which features a reusable first stage. But that's no longer the plan.
"New Glenn's second mission will take place NET [no earlier than] August 15th," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said via X on Monday (June 9).
"Following in the footsteps of our first booster, we've chosen the name 'Never Tell Me The Odds' for Tail 2," he added in the post. "One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster. This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution. We're on track to produce eight GS2s this year, and the one we'll fly on this second mission was hot-fired in April. Gradatim Ferociter!"
The first New Glenn booster was named "So You're Telling Me There's a Chance," a line from the 1994 Jim Carrey movie "Dumb and Dumber."
The "chance" Blue Origin was referring to was the possibility that the booster would land safely on the company's drone ship shortly after its Jan. 16 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. That didn't happen, but the rest of that debut flight went well: New Glenn successfully carried its payload — a test version of Blue Origin's new Blue Ring spacecraft platform — to Earth orbit.
The GS2s that Limp mentioned are New Glenn upper stages. And the number he cited is meaningful; the company has previously said that it planned to launch eight New Glenn missions this year — a target that is almost certainly out of reach at this point, as Ars Technica's Eric Berger noted.
"Gradatim ferociter," by the way, is Blue Origin's motto. It's Latin for "Step by step, ferociously."
Related stories:
— Blue Origin: Everything you need to know about the private spaceflight company
— New Glenn: Blue Origin's reusable rocket
— NASA delays ESCAPADE Mars launch on Blue Origin's giant New Glenn rocket to 2025 to avoid potential cost overruns
Limp's X post didn't give a reason for the delay to Aug. 15. And the company still hasn't announced what New Glenn — which can haul 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO) — will carry on the test flight.
In February, during a talk at the 27th Annual Commercial Space Conference in Washington, Limp said that Blue Origin was "still looking for opportunities."
"If it came to it and we just had to fly a mass simulator, we'll fly a mass simulator," he said at the time.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
'Hockey stick of job growth' fueled by space, aerospace industries across Brevard
This story is part of America's Evolving Cities, a USA TODAY Network project that takes a close look at four regions across the country and their unique paths to success — and how residents have benefited or suffered along the way. Rather than die on the vine, high-tech space and aerospace industries have mushroomed and flourished across Florida's Space Coast — to magnitudes few could have predicted — since NASA mothballed the space shuttle program after Atlantis' final flight in July 2011. Think billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — the two richest men in the world — and their respective companies SpaceX and Blue Origin. And national defense contractors like L3Harris Technologies, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Viewed on a chart, Brevard County's annual aerospace-aviation workforce statistics show "a hockey stick of job growth" climbing upward in recent years, said Mike Miller, Space Florida vice president of external affairs, speaking during an April 22 Melbourne Regional Chamber presentation. Example: Brevard County's workforce in that sector practically doubled during the brief span from 2017 (7,847 workers) to 2023 (14,828 workers), Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast records show. And SpaceX is delivering a mammoth program now under construction: The gargantuan Starship-Super Heavy rocket system is coming to NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Economists expect at least $1.8 billion in projected capital investment and 600 new full-time jobs by 2030. 'It's a very exciting time, just as it was back in the '50s and the '60s,' said Robert Taylor, a Florida Institute of Technology history professor. 'Someday, when Americans actually make the trip back to the moon — or the ultimate trip to Mars — they'll start right here in Brevard County," Taylor said. Aside from SpaceX, EDC officials provided a list of Brevard's anchor corporate investments since the end of the shuttle program, nearly 14 years ago: ⬤ Blue Origin. In a 2015 move hailed by economic development officials as a shift "from a shuttle shutdown to a commercial space rebirth," Bezo's private company announced it would build a rocket manufacturing facility on the Space Coast. Fast forward to today. Blue Origin has invested more than $3 billion in facilities in Florida and employs more than 3,000 workers in the state, primarily on the Space Coast. The company's ever-growing rocket factory on Merritt Island sprawls across more than 230 acres, building massive New Glenn two-stage rockets. Former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe told FLORIDA TODAY this "unbelievable" complex is one of the biggest construction infrastructure efforts at the Cape since the 1960s. ⬤ L3Harris Technologies. In 2015, Melbourne-based Harris Corp., which partnered with NASA on space projects for decades, acquired Exelis Inc., a global aerospace company based in McLean, Virginia, in a $4.75 billion deal. That same year, Harris Corp. opened the six-story, 450,000-square-foot Harris Technology Center in Palm Bay to house about 1,400 employees. And in 2019, the company merged with L3 Technologies to form L3Harris Technologies, America's sixth-largest defense company. Today, L3Harris ranks as Brevard County's third-largest employer, trailing only Health First and Brevard Public Schools. In 2023, the defense-contracting giant completed its $4.7 billion acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne. ⬤ Northrop Grumman. Major expansion started two years after Atlantis' final flight at the company's ever-growing campus at Melbourne Orlando International Airport. That's where engineers developed the U.S. Air Force's B-21 Raider long-range stealth bomber, which is under production and testing in California. Northrop Grumman's Melbourne campus employs about 5,000 workers, including contract employees, across 2 million square feet of office, labs and manufacturing space. The building count jumped from six to 17 between 2016 and 2022. And work is underway on another 38-acre, multi-phase expansion complex on airport-owned property along NASA Boulevard for about 1,200 employees. ⬤ Lockheed Martin. Back in 2005, the defense contractor announced it would retain 1,000 jobs by keeping the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Unit at Port Canaveral, the EDC reported. By 2017, the company moved its Fleet Ballistic Missile headquarters from Sunnyvale, California, to Titusville, bringing in 350 new jobs. In 2021, Lockheed Martin opened its Spacecraft Test, Assembly and Resource (STAR) Center in Titusville to expand manufacturing, assembly and testing for NASA's Orion spacecraft program. And in January, the firm announced plans to build a $140-million advanced manufacturing facility in Titusville supporting the U.S. Navy's next-generation Trident II D5 LE2 ballistic missile program. This expansion is projected to open in 2027 and generate up to 300 new jobs with average salaries of $89,000. ⬤ Embraer. Since 2008, Embraer has announced four development phases creating its first North American business-jet-building campus at the Melbourne airport, generating more than 1,000 jobs and capital investments topping $155 million. The Brazilian company operates business jet production facilities, a global customer center and its first U.S.-based engineering and technology center here. Embraer's Phenom 100EV and the Phenom 300E, which can carry up to 11 passengers and crew — are built "nose to tail" in Melbourne. Alongside Embraer, Lynda Weatherman, EDC president and CEO, pointed to Lockheed's Orion spacecraft program as leading a "paradigm shift" in Brevard's aerospace-aviation sector. She said the EDC led the aggressive effort to land Orion. "For the first time in 50 years of history of space in the state of Florida, we're assembling a launch vehicle. Ever. And people need to see that and understand: That was the paradigm shift," she said. Illustrating that point, Weatherman cited Dassault Falcon Jet's new $115 million maintenance complex under construction at Melbourne Orlando International Airport, which will service corporate aircraft from the U.S. East Coast, Mexico and Latin America. The first aircraft should arrive in July. Space Florida President and CEO Rob Long said those developments helped spur continuing accelerated growth. Just the past two years, he said Space Florida-backed projects added more than 1,500 jobs and $2.7 billion of investment on Space Coast — generating roughly $750 million in economic impact. Back in 2011, the year Atlantis flew for the final time, the Space Coast hosted 10 orbital rocket launches carrying about 95,334 pounds of payload into orbit, Space Florida statistics show. Civil agencies like NASA and NOAA accounted for six of those missions, while the other four launches were for the Department of Defense. Fast forward to last year. A record-shattering 93 launches lifted more than 2.74 million pounds of payload into orbit — a whopping 29-fold increase. SpaceX rockets accounted for 88 of last year's 93 missions, while United Launch Alliance rockets launched the remaining five. 'The (rocket) launch is exciting to see. And it's in many ways a visual metaphor of what's happening here, if you think about it," Weatherman said. Sarah Beaudin, a Northrop Grumman systems engineering director, has worked for the defense contractor for 22 years. She moved from Southern California to central Brevard in 2018, and she serves as technical chief on the U.S. Navy E-2D Advanced Hawkeye radar-dome aircraft program. Beaudin said she enjoys Brevard's easy accessibility, particularly to the beaches, and she and her daughter picked up birdwatching as a hobby. How has the Space Coast changed since she arrived? "The growth. There has been a lot of growth. I live right off Pineda Causeway. When I bought my house, it was a dead end on the other side of (Interstate) 95. Now, there's Costco and lots and lots of houses — and more being built," she said. Space Launch Delta 45 now projects 107 rockets will launch during 2025. Looking ahead, Federal Aviation Administration officials are collecting public comment on SpaceX's proposal to boost Falcon rocket launches up to 120 per year just from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. "It really used to be an event when the shuttle went off, and people would line the roads and they'd watch the shuttle go up. Night launches were particularly spectacular. But today, it seems like it's not so much an event ... sometimes, it seems daily there's rockets going up," Florida Historical Society Executive Director Ben Brotemarkle said. "The future looks bright for the space program. And there's certainly continued growth that you can see today in Brevard County. It never ceases to amaze me driving down the roads," Brotemarkle said. For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Rockets, aerospace growth take off in Brevard in NASA post-shuttle era
Tom's Guide
4 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
Smartwatches How-Tos
Here at Tom's Guide our expert editors are committed to bringing you the best news, reviews and guides to help you stay informed and ahead of the curve! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
World's first images of the sun's south pole spark 'a new era of solar science'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Just this once, it's OK to stare at the sun — provided you're looking at the European Space Agency's (ESA) newly released, history-making images of the solar south pole. Taken near the sun on March 23 and revealed to Earthlings Wednesday (June 11), the new images from ESA's Solar Orbiter show a view of our star that no human or spacecraft has ever recorded before. While Earth and the other planets orbit relatively in line with the sun's equator on an invisible plane called the ecliptic, Solar Orbiter spent the last several months tilting its orbit to 17 degrees below the solar equator — bringing our star's enigmatic south pole into view for the first time ever. "Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole," Carole Mundell, ESA's director of science, said in a statement. "These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science." The new images capture the solar pole in a broad swath of visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, using three of Solar Orbiter's 10 onboard instruments. The result is a colorful confetti of solar data, including an unprecedented look at the perplexing tangles of the sun's magnetic field as it prepares to flip, and the high-velocity movements of specific chemical elements as they ride plumes of plasma that make up the solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles that governs space weather throughout our solar system. These data will help improve our understanding of the solar wind, space weather and the sun's roughly 11-year activity cycle for years to come, according to ESA. But of particular interest right now, as the sun spits out flares in overdrive during its period of peak activity (called solar maximum), are the magnetic measurements taken with Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument. Related: NASA spacecraft snaps eerie image of eclipsed sun with an extra moon overhead. What's going on? PHI's maps of the solar magnetic field highlight an intriguing paradox: While most magnets have a distinct north and south pole, the sun's south pole is roiling with both north and south polarity magnetic fields (shown as blue and red patches in the corresponding images). According to ESA, this mess of magnetism is a temporary phenomenon that hints that the sun's magnetic field is about to flip, as it does once every 11 years or so. This magnetic reversal signifies the end of the high-activity solar maximum and begins a transition toward the relative calm of the next solar minimum. When the next minimum begins, approximately five to six years from now, the sun's poles should show only one type of magnetic polarity apiece as our star takes a break from launching violent space weather tantrums. RELATED STORIES —A mysterious, 100-year solar cycle may have just restarted — and it could mean decades of dangerous space weather —NASA's Parker Solar Probe spots powerful magnetic explosion aimed at the sun's surface —Ancient superpowered solar storm that hit Earth 14,000 years ago is the 'biggest ever identified' Solar Orbiter will have several more chances to test these predictions over the coming years. With a little help from the gravitational pull of Venus, Solar Orbiter will continue tilting its orbit further from the solar equator, reaching a tilt of 24 degrees in December 2026 and a whopping 33 degrees in June 2029. These ever-more-angular vantage points will expose the solar poles in even greater detail, improving our knowledge of our home star with every flyby. "This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's 'stairway to heaven'," Daniel Müller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist, said in the statement. "These data will transform our understanding of the Sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity."
