#new glenn

[gemini-enthusiast]

January 16th, 2025 will go down in history as a pretty eventful day in space flight, I think. Beginning with the successful first orbital launch of New Glenn before failing to land the booster, the afternoon showcased SpaceX's second Super Heavy booster catch and the RUD of their first Block 2 upper stage. A day rich with incident.

[spaceexp]

Comparing US commercial launch vehicles: Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, New Glenn and Starship

[klimkovsky]

Awaiting the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket

Blue Origin is a direct and perhaps the closest competitor to SpaceX. Its founder, Jeff Bezos (Jeffrey Preston “Jeff” Bezos), better known as the founder and owner of Amazon, as well as the head of the Washington Post publishing house, was the richest man on the planet for several years, and only a couple of years ago he gave up his place in this rating to Elon Musk. Almost simultaneously with Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos assessed the prospects of the private sector in American and world cosmonautics, and began to actively invest in this industry — he created an aerospace company, whose name for many years was associated only with commercial suborbital jumps to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere — an attraction for the rich. But in parallel with this, a heavy-class carrier was being developed, strategically aimed at reusability.

This development has been delayed. The launch of the New Glenn rocket (named after the first American astronaut to make the first orbital flight, John Glenn) has been expected for many years. Its creation began more than 10 years ago, but since then the dates for demonstrating at least something have only been postponed. Contracts were even signed for the launch of payloads, but most of them were terminated due to the unreadiness of the carrier, or postponed indefinitely. For example, in 2021, New Glenn was supposed to deliver a research station to the Moon, and in 2023, send another rover to Mars. Most of the failed Blue Origin contracts went to (it’s not hard to guess who) SpaceX. It’s gotten ridiculous — like SpaceX, Blue Origin aims to create its own satellite constellation for broadband Internet access around the world (this is the so-called Project Kuiper — an analogue of the Starlink system), and the New Glenn rocket was primarily developed for this project, but the first devices of Jeff Bezos’ satellite constellation were launched into orbit by Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 carriers.

The delay in the development of New Glenn is largely due to problems in the development of BE-4 engines. These are innovative engines on a Methane-Oxygen fuel pair. Elon Musk preferred Kerosene-Oxygen fuel for his workhorse Falcon 9 and was right. Despite the promising benefit of using methane, the technology of methane engines is still only being researched. But Bezos decided not to waste time on temporary solutions and ended up getting stuck at the development and testing stage, which also let down industry partners — the American space giant ULA (United Launch Alliance), whose Vulcan rocket (which replaced the Atlas-5 launch vehicle, which used Russian RD-180 engines) also could not put anything into orbit for several years, since there were no BE-4 engines for it. And most of ULA’s contracts also went to SpaceX.

But now the engines are ready, and even Vulcan has already launched a couple of times. But New Glenn still couldn’t take off — apparently, the development was stuck on something else besides the engines. At the end of 2024, the stumbling block was the launch permit from the FAA, which had previously passionately slowed down test flights of the Starship system from SpaceX, but now it seems the American regulator has a new passion.

However, permission has already been received — in the first days of the new year 2025. Fire tests of the carrier, which has been on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral for many days, have been conducted. The launch may occur in the very near future, but not earlier than January 10.

This will be a demonstration flight, during which a demo version of the orbital tug “Blue Ring Pathfinder” will appear in space, which will not even separate from the second stage — it will be deorbited (submerged) together with it. Orbital tugs are a relatively new direction in space technology. The cost of launches is rapidly falling. And the cost of the payload is still quite high. For example, launching into orbit can cost from 50 to 100 million dollars, but the device itself can cost a billion. Its service life is limited by the wear of solar panels or the supply of fuel for correction and raising the orbit. What if it was possible to refuel a satellite worth a billion for 100 million dollars or transfer it to another orbit, replace a number of components right in orbit, or even deorbit it — with the help of a special satellite — a tug? Previously, this was not thought about. Of course, the Space Shuttle system sometimes solved such problems, but now it is gone, and there are satellites waiting for servicing in orbit. New players in the space technology market are also trying to fill this niche with their developments. Blue Origin is also developing tugs. “Blue Ring Pathfinder” is their brainchild. It turns out that in the upcoming flight we will see a demonstration of two promising technologies at once.

Blue Ring — a space tug from Blue Origin

Source: Universe and Human

Author: Andrey Klimkovsky

[paraparaparadigm]

[talkoftitusville]

Amazon's Project Kuiper Set to Revolutionize Space Coast's Commercial Space Industry

Amazon’s ambitious foray into the Space Coast’s commercial space industry is rapidly gaining momentum, with the ecommerce giant poised to establish itself as a major player in the region. Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy and community engagement, provided key updates on the company’s groundbreaking Project Kuiper satellite initiative during a recent discussion with the…

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: boomless cruise, Google Family Link, FCC licensing weaponization, Blue Origin, Android 16

Weekly output: boomless cruise, Google Family Link, FCC licensing weaponization, Blue Origin, Android 16

This past week treated me to a few things I haven’t enjoyed in a while: consecutive all-day conferences in D.C., with a chance to shovel snow off the sidewalk in between. This coming week has me going to a conference in a place devoid of snow: Doha, where Web Summit Qatar starts Sunday. I also wrote an extra post for Patreon patrons Thursday: a look at what you can learn about Elon Musk’s…

[alaturkaamerika]

Blue Origin, 1.400 Çalışanını İşten Çıkarıyor: Maliyetleri Düşürme Hamlesi!

🚀 Blue Origin’de büyük işten çıkarma dalgası!📉 Şirket, maliyetleri düşürmek ve roket fırlatmalarına odaklanmak için 1.400 çalışanıyla yollarını ayırıyor.🏗️ Bu karar, uzay sektöründeki rekabeti nasıl etkileyecek? 📢 Sizce Blue Origin’in geleceği nasıl şekillenecek? 🤔👇 Blue Origin, 1.400 Çalışanını İşten Çıkarıyor! 📌 Jeff Bezos’un sahibi olduğu uzay şirketi Blue Origin, iş gücünün yaklaşık %10’unu…

[rodspurethoughts]

News Brief: Blue Origin’s New Glenn Successfully Reaches Orbit on Historic NG-1 Mission

Exciting times ahead! 🌌 Blue Origin's New Glenn is set to revolutionize space travel with its powerful design and reusable tech! #SpaceInnovation

New Glenn at liftoff during the NG-1 mission (January 16, 2025). Cape Canaveral, FL – January 16, 2025 – In a remarkable achievement for commercial spaceflight, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket successfully reached orbit during its inaugural NG-1 mission today, marking a significant milestone for the company and the industry. The rocket’s second stage performed flawlessly, completing two…

[lefkosahaberleri]

Blue Origin'in New Glenn Roketinin İlk Fırlatılışı

New Post has been published on https://lefkosa.com.tr/blue-originin-new-glenn-roketinin-ilk-firlatilisi-33867/

Blue Origin'in New Glenn Roketinin İlk Fırlatılışı

Blue Origin’in yeni nesil roketi New Glenn, uzay keşiflerinde devrim yaratacak. İlk fırlatılışıyla ilgili tüm detayları, roketin özelliklerini ve gelecekteki misyonlarını keşfedin.

https://lefkosa.com.tr/blue-originin-new-glenn-roketinin-ilk-firlatilisi-33867/ --------

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches massive New Glenn rocket on first test flight

16 January 2025

Blue Origin launched its massive new rocket on its first test flight Thursday, sending up a prototype satellite to orbit thousands of miles above Earth.

[kosmos-x]

Новая американская ракета New Glenn впервые запущена в космос: её особенности и перспективы, видео запуска

Компания Blue Origin, владельцем которой является небезызвестный миллиардер и основатель Amazon Д... Читать дальше »

[gemini-enthusiast]

Legendary astronaut astrophotographer Don Pettit has posted his photography of the New Glenn launch, as viewed from the ISS.

[spaceexp]

Blue Origin successfully launched the first New Glenn rocket. The first stage booster was lost during reentry descent.

[greenstartpoint]

«New Glenn» взлетел, но вернуться на Землю с первого раза не получилось

Итак, свершилось, через 24-х лет после основания Джеффом Безосом своей частной космической компании «Blue Origin», они-таки запустили в космос свой первый по-настоящему космический РН тяжёлого класса «New Glenn». Сегодня, 16-ого января, с одной из стартовых площадок на мысе Канаверал во Флориде, совершил свой первый тестовый старт РН «New Glenn». Носитель должен быть многоразовым, и возвращаться…

[paraparaparadigm]

[talkoftitusville]

FAA Requiring Mishap Investigation For Blue Origin Stage 1 Landing Failure

As expected, the FAA is requiring an investigation into Blue Origin’s New Glenn’s first stage failure during its descent towards an attempted landing in the Atlantic Ocean: While it is unlikely that any property or persons were placed in danger by the failure event, this is a normal requirement for any launch failure by a commercial launch provider that is not operating under a NASA or DoD…