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Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, will launch its New Glen heavy-lift rocket on January 10th at the earliest, according to an announcement it made just moments back. The New Glenn, should its launch be successful, will become the second operational heavy lift rocket in America and join SpaceX's Falcon Heavy in the capability to send at least 44,000 pounds to low Earth orbit (LEO). The launch date will also clash with SpaceX's Starship Flight 7, which is currently believed to be targeting a January 10th launch date as well, although SpaceX is yet to provide official confirmation.
Blue Origin Will Send Payload Pathfinder To Orbit & Try To Land Booster Larger Than SpaceX's Falcon 9 On Inaugural Flight
Like SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, Blue Origin's New Glenn also uses a first stage rocket capable of landing on a drone ship. However, Blue Orign's booster is more powerful as it is capable of generating 3.8 million pounds of thrust compared to the Falcon 9's 1.7 million pounds. On its inaugural flight, Blue Origin will attempt to land the first stage booster on its drone ship.
This will be the first time in history that a firm will attempt to land a rocket the size of the New Glenn on a drone ship. If it is successful, Blue Origin will join SpaceX to become the second company in the world with an orbital-class medium or heavy-lift rocket capable of propulsive landing.
In a statement made earlier today, Blue Origin confirmed that it is targeting January 10th as the initial launch date for the New Glenn rocket. The firm added that it will attempt to recover the first-stage booster as well, noting that it is aware "landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it. it."
A January 10th launch date for New Glenn also means that the rocket can launch on the same day as SpaceX's Starship Flight 7. However, Blue Origin plans to launch New Glenn's Pathfinder mission an hour after midnight Eastern time on the 10th, while SpaceX's Starship test flights typically take off in the morning.
It is likely that New Glenn will lift off before Starship since Blue Origin is relying on a three-hour launch window for the rocket's inaugural flight. On board New Glenn will be the firm's Blue Ring Pathfinder payload, an orbital logistics prototype for the Department of Defense. The payload choice means that the New Glenn will debut with a national security launch, and if the launch is successful, then along with SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance (ULA), Blue will also become a national security launch service provider for the Pentagon.
Some tests that Blue Orign will run on the flight include evaluating its space-to-ground communications capabilities, ground systems performance, and telemetry collection. Blue Origin will not deploy pathfinder in space, as the payload is expected to remain inside the New Glenn second stage for the entirety of the six-hour mission.
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