Latest news with #BlueRing
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Blue Origin New Glenn rocket preparing for possible late spring Cape Canaveral launch
After the inaugural January flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, many began wondering: when will this massive rocket launch again? Blue Origin says to expect a launch in late spring. Blue Origin has been observed working on the multi-stage orbital rocket to prepare it for this second flight from Cape Canaveral. An exact launch date has not yet been announced. Not to be confused with Blue Origin's single-stage New Shepard, which launches from Texas, the multi-stage 320-foot-tall New Glenn is the rocket that will bring Bezos' company into the orbital marketplace, currently dominated by SpaceX. And like SpaceX's Falcon 9, New Glenn is built to reuse the first-stage booster by having it land out on Blue Origin's Jacklyn drone ship. While Blue Origin failed to land the first-stage during the January flight — Jacklyn returned to Port Canaveral empty — Blue Origin wants to try again during this upcoming flight. New Glenn's first-stage is deigned to fly a minimum of 25 times — something Falcon 9 has already accomplished with SpaceX recently landing one for the 27th time. But while the landing wasn't successful in January, New Glenn's upper-stage successfully delivered the Blue Ring test payload to orbit. Earlier in April, the second-stage engine was observed traveling from Blue Origin's Merritt Island facilities on Space Commerce Way to the launch facilities in Cape Canaveral. Then on April 24, Blue Origin conducted a 15-second test fire of the second-stage at the company's Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36. The FLORIDA TODAY Space Team have also observed activity around the launch pad, such as flare stacks burning brightly. Blue Origin's Launch Complex 36 is the only launch pad clearly visible from Brevard beaches. "January's GS2 performed remarkably during our inaugural New Glenn launch, delivering our payload to orbit with less than 1% deviation from the target. Today, we completed a full duration 15-second hotfire test of the upper stage for our NG-2 mission. This time, we achieved enhanced performance from the BE-3U engine, increasing the maximum thrust from 173,000 lbf to 175,000 lbf per engine, further expanding New Glenn's capabilities for our customers," CEO Dave Limp said in a April 24 post on X. The payload for this upcoming flight has not yet been revealed, and it is unknown when NASA's EscaPADE mission to Mars will be launching on the rocket. That mission was originally set to launch on the Blue Origin rocket last year. When is the next launch? Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral Once operational, New Glenn will also launch Amazon's Project Kuiper internet satellites, which are a competitor to SpaceX's Starlink. Florida just saw the first launch of the Kuiper internet constellation last month atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@ or on X: @brookeofstars. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Massive Blue Origin New Glenn rocket to launch 2nd time by late spring
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin targeting late spring for 2nd launch of powerful New Glenn rocket
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. WASHINGTON, D.C. — The second launch of Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket could be just a few months away. The 320-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) New Glenn lifted off for the first time on Jan. 16 from Florida's Space Coast. The test flight was a success; the rocket's upper stage successfully carried its payload, a test version of Blue Origin's new Blue Ring spacecraft platform, to Earth orbit. A secondary objective didn't go so well; New Glenn's first-stage booster failed to stick its landing on a ship at sea. (This was the expected outcome, the company had stressed; a successful touchdown on the debut flight would have been a pleasant surprise.) Blue Origin says it has homed in on the likely cause of the booster issue and plans to try again soon. The booster's engines appeared to be performing well during the landing sequence, but "we weren't able to get everything right to the engine from the tanks. And so we think we understand what the issues are," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said during a talk on Wednesday (Feb. 12) here at the 27th Annual Commercial Space Conference. He didn't identify those issues, describing them as "a combination of a couple of things." Blue Origin is making some changes to the second New Glenn booster to increase the chances of landing success, Limp added. "The modifications are not complicated," he said. 'I don't think it's going to delay our path to flight. I think we can still fly late spring.' Related: Blue Origin: Everything you need to know about the private spaceflight company RELATED STORIES: — Blue Origin fires up 2nd stage of huge New Glenn rocket ahead of debut launch (video) — NASA delays ESCAPADE Mars launch on Blue Origin's giant New Glenn rocket to 2025 to avoid potential cost overruns — New Glenn: Blue Origin's reusable rocket Blue Origin still hasn't announced what payload(s) will fly on New Glenn's second launch, and Limp said the company is "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. The company views the first three New Glenn launches as developmental flights, he added, but has commercial customers for the rocket from Flight 4 onward. New Glenn, which has been in development for about a decade, can carry 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO). Its 23-foot-wide (7 m) payload fairing — the shell that surrounds and protects satellites during launch — is larger than that of any operational rocket.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Opinion - Blue Origin's New Glenn launch ups the ante on the commercial space race
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin joined the billionaire's space race in earnest when its New Glenn rocket roared from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of Jan. 16. The second stage with the Blue Ring payload successfully reached orbit. However, an attempt to land the first stage on a drone ship failed. Still, the successful launch represents a triumph for the rival rocket company to Elon Musk's SpaceX. It promises to change the economics of space travel, at least in the short term. The success occurred on the first try. The launch of New Glenn was a long time coming, with development starting as early as 2012. Eric Berger of Ars Technica suggested on X that a leadership change at Blue Origin led to success after a long, plodding process. 'The hiring of Dave Limp as CEO of Blue Origin, and subsequent launch of New Glenn only a little more than a year later, underscores the importance of leadership in aerospace. Multiple sources report a major culture change at Blue vectored toward results.' The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring an investigation over the failure to land the first stage of the New Glenn before the rocket is allowed to fly again. Later that day, SpaceX conducted the seventh test of the Starship-SuperHeavy from its launch complex at Boca Chica, Texas. The results were decidedly mixed. The SuperHeavy booster separated from the Starship second stage and returned to the launch pad, caught by the 'chopstick' mechanical arms, mimicking the success achieved in the fifth test of the monster rocket conducted last October. However, as the Starship fired its engines and proceeded toward orbit, they started shutting down prematurely, followed by telemetry, only for it to be lost altogether. Starship thus reentered the atmosphere in pieces, streaking across the sky over the Turks and Caicos Islands. The sight was eerily similar to what happened to the space shuttle Columbia when it broke apart in the skies over Texas in February 2003. The FAA was obliged to reroute some planes from the danger area. It should be noted that Starship has incorporated a number of enhancements, making it a completely different vehicle from previous iterations. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X what the flight controllers found to be the cause of the 'Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly' or explosion. 'Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.' Musk believes the solution is straightforward. 'Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area,' he wrote. 'Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.' The FAA may have something to say about that. Past experience tells us from previous mishaps that the regulatory agency will require months of investigation before SpaceX is allowed to fly again. In this case, the FAA has charged SpaceX with conducting the investigation under its supervision. SpaceX will not fly until the agency approves the results and the corrective action, On the other hand, President Trump, with whom Musk has a close relationship, will have authority over the FAA. Will the investigation be expedited to fit Musk's desire to fly again quickly rather than the business-as-usual of plodding bureaucracy? The Starship, in one form, is designed to take human beings back to the lunar surface before the end of the second Trump presidency. Any long delay would place that goal in doubt. The first flight of the New Glenn and the seventh flight of the Starship prove that launch vehicle development features spectacular explosions and crashes on the road to becoming operational. SpaceX has spoiled us with its Falcon family of rockets, launching and then landing with a normality unimagined just a few years ago. It took a lot of failed launches for the company to achieve the reliability and low cost of the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy with a lot of failed launches. The phrase 'failure is not an option' is a misnomer. Each failure is a learning process. Failure is necessary to achieve eventual success. Success for the Starship and the New Glenn will open the moon, Mars and beyond to human activity. The Starship will land humans on the moon in a few years. New Glenn will launch the Blue Moon lander as an alternative to the SpaceX monster rocket. The wonders that these two rockets may create are almost beyond evaluation. Mark R. Whittington is the author of 'Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?' as well as 'The Moon, Mars and Beyond,' and, most recently, 'Why is America Going Back to the Moon?' He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
26-01-2025
- Science
- The Hill
Blue Origin's New Glenn launch ups the ante on the commercial space race
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin joined the billionaire's space race in earnest when its New Glenn rocket roared from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of Jan. 16. The second stage with the Blue Ring payload successfully reached orbit. However, an attempt to land the first stage on a drone ship failed. Still, the successful launch represents a triumph for the rival rocket company to Elon Musk's SpaceX. It promises to change the economics of space travel, at least in the short term. The success occurred on the first try. The launch of New Glenn was a long time coming, with development starting as early as 2012. Eric Berger of Ars Technica suggested on X that a leadership change at Blue Origin led to success after a long, plodding process. 'The hiring of Dave Limp as CEO of Blue Origin, and subsequent launch of New Glenn only a little more than a year later, underscores the importance of leadership in aerospace. Multiple sources report a major culture change at Blue vectored toward results.' The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring an investigation over the failure to land the first stage of the New Glenn before the rocket is allowed to fly again. Later that day, SpaceX conducted the seventh test of the Starship-SuperHeavy from its launch complex at Boca Chica, Texas. The results were decidedly mixed. The SuperHeavy booster separated from the Starship second stage and returned to the launch pad, caught by the 'chopstick' mechanical arms, mimicking the success achieved in the fifth test of the monster rocket conducted last October. However, as the Starship fired its engines and proceeded toward orbit, they started shutting down prematurely, followed by telemetry, only for it to be lost altogether. Starship thus reentered the atmosphere in pieces, streaking across the sky over the Turks and Caicos Islands. The sight was eerily similar to what happened to the space shuttle Columbia when it broke apart in the skies over Texas in February 2003. The FAA was obliged to reroute some planes from the danger area. It should be noted that Starship has incorporated a number of enhancements, making it a completely different vehicle from previous iterations. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X what the flight controllers found to be the cause of the 'Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly' or explosion. 'Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.' Musk believes the solution is straightforward. 'Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area,' he wrote. 'Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.' The FAA may have something to say about that. Past experience tells us from previous mishaps that the regulatory agency will require months of investigation before SpaceX is allowed to fly again. In this case, the FAA has charged SpaceX with conducting the investigation under its supervision. SpaceX will not fly until the agency approves the results and the corrective action, On the other hand, President Trump, with whom Musk has a close relationship, will have authority over the FAA. Will the investigation be expedited to fit Musk's desire to fly again quickly rather than the business-as-usual of plodding bureaucracy? The Starship, in one form, is designed to take human beings back to the lunar surface before the end of the second Trump presidency. Any long delay would place that goal in doubt. The first flight of the New Glenn and the seventh flight of the Starship prove that launch vehicle development features spectacular explosions and crashes on the road to becoming operational. SpaceX has spoiled us with its Falcon family of rockets, launching and then landing with a normality unimagined just a few years ago. It took a lot of failed launches for the company to achieve the reliability and low cost of the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy with a lot of failed launches. The phrase 'failure is not an option' is a misnomer. Each failure is a learning process. Failure is necessary to achieve eventual success. Success for the Starship and the New Glenn will open the moon, Mars and beyond to human activity. The Starship will land humans on the moon in a few years. New Glenn will launch the Blue Moon lander as an alternative to the SpaceX monster rocket. The wonders that these two rockets may create are almost beyond evaluation.
