Tag: Blue Origin

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Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket makes its orbital debut

New Glenn rocket rises from launch pad
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rises up from its Florida launch pad in January. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

For the first time ever, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has put a payload in orbit, using its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket.

The two-stage rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:03 a.m. ET Jan. 16 (11:03 p.m. PT tonight). Cheers could be heard coming from Blue Origin employees watching the launch.

After stage separation, New Glenn’s first-stage booster executed an autonomous descent with the aim of landing on a barge stationed hundreds of miles offshore.

The booster, nicknamed “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,” missed the target. “We did in fact lose the booster,” launch commentator Ariane Cornell said. Landing the booster would have been a bonus, but it wasn’t considered a requirement for mission success.

The prime objective of the mission, known as NG-1, was to test the communications and control systems for Blue Ring, a multi-mission space mobility platform that’s under development at Blue Origin.

For Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin, and for Bezos, the mere fact that New Glenn made it to orbit was at least as significant as the Blue Ring Pathfinder test. Although the company has launched smaller New Shepard rockets on suborbital spaceflights for a decade, it had never before put a payload into Earth orbit.

That changed tonight.

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Blue Origin resets the plan for first orbital launch … twice!

New Glenn rocket on Florida launch pad
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket stands on its Florida launch pad. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Over the course of just a few hours today, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture made two adjustments to the schedule for launching its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket to orbit for the first time.

At first, Blue Origin said it would attempt liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 tonight, during a three-hour launch window beginning at 1 a.m. ET Jan. 14 (10 p.m. PT Jan. 13). But less than two and a half hours later, the company pushed back the launch date to the same time frame early Jan. 16 ET (late Jan. 15 PT).

No reason was immediately given for the quick change, but in today’s first announcement, Blue Origin acknowledged that a “poor weather forecast at LC-36 could result in missing” tonight’s launch window.

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Glitch forces a delay for Blue Origin’s first orbital launch

New Glenn rocket on Florida launch pad
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket stands on its Florida launch pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture counted down to the final hour tonight, but in the end, the company had to postpone the first-ever orbital launch of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket due to a stubborn technical glitch.

The launch from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was scrubbed a few minutes after 3 a.m. ET (midnight PT). Today’s three-hour launch window was due to close at 4 a.m. ET.

“We are standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window,” launch commentator Ariane Cornell said. “We are reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.”

Liftoff had already been delayed twice over the past few days due to concerns about rough seas in the area of the Atlantic where New Glenn’s first-stage booster was slated to land — and the fact that the seas had settled down raised hopes that the launch could take place tonight. But it was not to be.

Whenever it takes place, this would be a milestone launch: Although Blue Origin has been launching much smaller New Shepard rockets on suborbital spaceflights for a decade, it has never tried putting a payload into Earth orbit. That would change with New Glenn’s liftoff.

If New Glenn meets with success, that would mean more competition for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which currently dominates the orbital launch industry. It would also open the way for a host of applications that Blue Origin aims to support — ranging from satellite constellations to moon missions to a commercial space station.

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Blue Origin resets the date for New Glenn’s orbital debut

Blue Origin’s New Glenn on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Blue Origin’s New Glenn on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (Blue Origin Image)

UPDATE: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’s delaying the first-ever launch of its orbital-class New Glenn rocket due to unfavorable weather conditions for landing the first-stage booster.

Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 in Florida had been scheduled for no earlier than 1 a.m. ET Jan. 10 (10 p.m. PT tonight). But in an update posted to the X social-media platform, Blue Origin said the attempt has been rescheduled for a three-hour launch window that opens at 1 a.m. ET Jan. 12 (10 p.m. PT Jan. 11).

The schedule shift was made “due to a high sea state in the Atlantic where we hope to land our booster,” Blue Origin said. Video coverage of the countdown is expected to be streamed via BlueOrigin.com starting about an hour before liftoff.

New Glenn, which is named after the late pioneer astronaut John Glenn, is due to launch Blue Origin’s Blue Ring Pathfinder, a payload that’s designed to test the communications, power and control systems for the company’s Blue Ring multi-use space platform. The test flight is part of a prototyping effort for orbital logistics that’s supported by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.

Blue Origin has been working on the development of New Glenn for more than a decade — and mission controllers are likely to be monitoring the performance of the two-stage rocket at least as closely as they’ll be monitoring the payload.

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Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket passes its pre-launch test

New Glenn hotfire test at night
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket executes a hotfire test on its launch pad. (Blue Origin Photo)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’s put its orbital-class New Glenn rocket through its last major test in preparation for its first-ever launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

“All we have left to do is mate our encapsulated payload … and then LAUNCH!” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in an update posted to the X social-media platform.

Today’s integrated vehicle hotfire test took place just hours after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a five-year license for New Glenn launches and landings. The first launch hasn’t yet been officially scheduled but is likely to take place soon. “We are really close, folks,” Limp said in an earlier update on X.

New Glenn, which is named after the late astronaut and senator John Glenn, has been in the works for more than a decade. The first launch will send up Blue Origin’s Blue Ring Pathfinder, a demonstrator spacecraft that will test the communications, power and control systems for the company’s Blue Ring space mobility platform.

During today’s pre-launch rehearsal, all seven of New Glenn’s first-stage BE-4 engines fired simultaneously for 24 seconds while the booster was held down on the pad. The engines were brought up to 100% thrust for 13 of those seconds.

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Blue Origin launches a couple of two-timers into space

New Shepard booster landing
New Shepard’s booster comes in for a landing at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in Texas. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture sent six more people to the edge of space today — including the first husband-and-wife pair to make two trips together to the final frontier, and a science communicator who describes herself as “the Space Gal.”

The six spacefliers were launched from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:30 a.m. CT (7:30 a.m. PT) aboard the company’s New Shepard suborbital rocket ship. They raised Blue Origin’s tally of spacefliers to 47 — a number that now accounts for roughly 6% of all the humans who have flown into space,

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Blue Origin wins a new customer for New Glenn launches

Illustration: AST SpaceMobile satellites in orbit
An artist’s conception shows AST SpaceMobile’s Bluebird satellites in orbit. (AST SpaceMobile Illustration)

AST SpaceMobile plans to use Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket to launch some of the satellites for its space-based cellular broadband network in 2025 and 2026.

New Glenn has been under development at Jeff Bezos’ privately held space venture for more than a decade. Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin says the orbital-class rocket’s first launch is “on track” to take place this year at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Texas-based AST SpaceMobile is one of several satellite companies that have struck deals for New Glenn launches in advance of the rocket’s first mission.

“New Glenn’s performance and unprecedented capacity within its seven-meter fairing enables us to deploy more of our Block 2 BlueBird satellites in orbit, helping provide continuous cellular broadband service coverage across some of the most in-demand cellular markets globally,” Abel Avellan, AST SpaceMobile’s founder, chairman and CEO, said in a news release.

“It’s an honor to support AST SpaceMobile’s deployment of their next-generation BlueBird satellites, which will expand connectivity across the globe and positively impact many lives,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said. “New Glenn is purpose-built for these kinds of innovative and ambitious missions.”

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A tangled web surrounds Boeing and Blue Origin

View of Boeing Starliner craft docked to International Space Station
An image captured through the window of a SpaceX capsule shows Boeing’s Starliner capsule at the International Space Station. (NASA Photo)

Is Boeing thinking about unloading some of its space projects? Is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture a potential buyer? And in light of former President Donald Trump’s increasingly close relationship with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, how are Bezos and Blue Origin reaching out to the GOP candidate?

Such speculation is fueled by several reports about space-related (and Bezos-related) developments over just the past couple of days.

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New New Shepard space capsule launched for test run

Blue Origin New Shepard launch
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ship rises from its Texas launch pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture successfully sent a brand-new New Shepard rocket ship on an uncrewed shakedown cruise today, with the aim of increasing the company’s capacity to take people on suborbital space trips.

The capsule, dubbed RSS Karman Line, carried payloads instead of people when it lifted off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 10:27 a.m. CT (8:27 a.m. PT). But if all the data collected during the 10-minute certification flight checks out, it won’t be long before crews climb aboard for similar flights.

“Hopefully very soon we’ll see astronauts on board this vehicle,” launch commentator Joel Eby said after the capsule’s touchdown. “I want to say ‘welcome to the fleet’ for this brand-new vehicle.”

New Shepard spacecraft have now flown 27 times since 2015, with this mission designated NS-27. Eight of those missions have carried a total of 43 crew members in a human-rated capsule called RSS First Step. (RSS stands for “reusable spaceship.”) RSS Karman Line, which is named after the internationally accepted 100-kilometer boundary of outer space, should open the way for Blue Origin to pick up the pace of crewed flights going forward.

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Blue Origin donates space artifacts to the Smithsonian

Illustration: New Shepard capsule on display at Smithsonian
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule on display at the National Air and Space Museum. (Smithsonian Illustration)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has donated a New Shepard rocket booster, plus a New Shepard capsule, to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

The history-making hardware will go on display at the museum’s main building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in renovated galleries due to open in 2026. “There is no better final landing pad for New Shepard than the Smithsonian,” Bezos said in a statement. “We are honored and grateful.”

The reusable booster, known as Propulsion Module 4-2, was employed for five uncrewed flights — ranging from the New Shepard program’s first successful booster landing in 2015 to an escape system test that could have destroyed the propulsion module in 2016.

Before that final outing for the booster, Bezos said it would be put on display if it survived. “We’d really like to retire it after this test and put it in a museum,” he said at the time. “Sadly, that’s not likely. This test will probably destroy the booster.”

Fortunately for the Smithsonian, Bezos’ prediction was wrong.

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