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Blue Origin launches New Glenn for the first time on Jan. 15, 2025. Photo: Blue Origin
Blue Origin launched the New Glenn rocket for the first in the early hours of Thursday morning, reaching its intended orbit. Years in the making, Blue Origin hopes New Glenn will alleviate some of the scarcity in the launch market and provide another option for U.S. national security launches.
Launching in the early hours, New Glenn lifted off at 2:03 a.m. on Jan. 16 from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first mission successfully deployed the Blue Origin-built space logistics vehicle Blue Ring. The company confirmed post-launch that the Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data in space.
Despite the successful orbit and deployment, Blue Origin failed to recover the first stage booster. The first stage booster is designed for reuse and Blue Origin attempted to land it on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean but was not successful.
“I’m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said after the launch. “We knew landing our booster, ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,’ on the first try was an ambitious goal. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring.”
New Glenn made its debut in January after receiving a five-year launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in late December. The rocket was set to launch on Jan. 10 and was pushed back a few times for weather. Blue Origin scrubbed an attempt on Jan. 13 due to ice on an auxiliary power unit.
The mission also served as New Glenn’s first National Security Space Launch (NSSL) certification flight for U.S. national security missions. In June, the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command added Blue Origin to the National Security Space Launch (NSSL), Phase 3, Lane 1 award.
With this award, Blue Origin is now eligible to compete for NSSL missions against SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. The companies are eligible to compete for at least 30 launches in a window that lasts through June 2029, with an option for another five years.
Named after astronaut John Glenn, the heavy-lift rocket has a seven meter payload fairing – large enough to hold three school buses. It is capable of launching 13 metric tons to Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and 45 metric tons to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).
The rocket has been a long time in the making and made its debut after years of delays. It was announced in 2016, and previously set to debut with a Eutelsat mission in 2020.
New Glenn is part of the deployment plan for Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation, with 12 launches booked in a 2022 launch deal. Its other customers include NASA, Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation, AST SpaceMobile, and others.
“Today marks a new era for Blue Origin and for commercial space,” said Jarrett Jones, Senior Vice President, New Glenn. “We’re focused on ramping our launch cadence and manufacturing rates. My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Blue Origin for the tremendous amount of work in making today’s success possible, and to our customers and the space community for their continuous support. We felt that immensely today.”
Blue Origin expects New Glenn to alleviate some of the scarcity in the launch market, Jones said in September at World Space Business Week. “New Glenn will minimize the scarcity of launch providers,” Jones said. “We want to open up space for everyone,” he said.
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