Following a scrubbed launch try and weather-related delays, Blue Origin will as soon as once more attempt to ship its New Glenn rocket into area for the primary time. Throughout the try, the Jeff Bezos-owned area firm goals to achieve orbit, serving to to additional its targets of shuttling Venture Kuiper satellites, tools, and ultimately people into area.
Right here’s what you want to learn about when and find out how to watch New Glenn’s long-awaited inaugural launch.
What’s New Glenn?
New Glenn is the 320-foot-tall rocket that Blue Origin initially introduced in 2016. Although Blue Origin deliberate to launch New Glenn by 2020, the challenge was beset by delays on account of points with engine growth and different technical setbacks.
The rocket has a reusable first stage powered by the corporate’s BE-4 engines, which run on liquified pure fuel and liquid oxygen. Shortly after launch, the primary stage is meant to detach and autonomously land upright on a sea-based platform, the place Blue Origin can then retrieve it and reuse it for future missions.
Following separation, New Glenn’s higher stage ought to hearth up its BE-3U engines — a much less highly effective engine that makes use of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen — because it makes an attempt to propel itself into area with its payload. The higher stage is able to delivering 45 metric tons of cargo into low Earth orbit.
For this uncrewed launch, New Glenn will home the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a payload consisting of a communications array, an influence system, and a flight pc. This can let Blue Origin take a look at its Blue Ring spacecraft, which is able to ultimately assist missions with refueling, internet hosting, knowledge relay, and cloud computing capabilities.
Earlier this week, Blue Origin scrubbed New Glenn’s launch on account of a “automobile subsystem situation.” A profitable first launch may make Blue Origin a severe rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Together with competing for presidency contracts, each industrial area corporations are additionally working to construct out web satellite tv for pc constellations, with SpaceX recurrently sending Starlink satellites into area and Blue Origin on faucet to assist Amazon’s Venture Kuiper initiative.
When will Blue Origin launch New Glenn?
Blue Origin’s subsequent launch try will happen at Launch Complicated 36 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday, January sixteenth. The three-hour launch window opens at 1AM ET (10PM PT).
Blue Origin says the “automobile seems to be good” for Thursday’s launch window, however says it’s “watching climate carefully as clouds construct over the Area Coast.” If the corporate can’t try and launch New Glenn on the sixteenth, it’s going to make one other try Friday, January seventeenth with a three-hour window opening at 1AM.
The right way to watch New Glenn’s launch
You’ll be able to watch a livestream of New Glenn’s launch from Blue Origin’s web site, its X account, and its YouTube channel. We’ll embed a livestream right here when it turns into accessible.
Replace, January fifteenth: Added an replace from Blue Origin about launch timing.