Pentagon decides New Glenn must fly four times before its certifies it for military launches
Pentagon officials yesterday announced that before it will certify Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for commercial military payloads, it must complete two more successful orbital launches, for a total of four flights.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will have to complete four successful orbital flights as its pathway to certification under the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said Dec. 10 at the Spacepower conference. Garrant, who leads the Space Systems Command, said Blue Origin selected the four-flight benchmark and the government agreed. “The government is supporting a four-flight certification for New Glenn,” he told reporters. The rocket has logged two successful missions so far, and Garrant said a third launch is expected “earlier in the new year than later.” If upcoming flights stay on track, he added, “I think they’re going to be in a fantastic place to become our third certified provider and compete for missions.”
If certified, Blue Origin would join SpaceX and United Launch Alliance as the Space Force’s third heavy-lift launch provider.
It is surprising that the military is requiring four successful flights from Blue Origin, but required only two from ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, and certified that even though there were problems on Vulcan’s second flight.
These extra flights should not cause a significant delay, since Blue Origin is expecting to complete a number of launches in 2026 to meet its obligations under its Amazon Leo contract
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Pentagon officials yesterday announced that before it will certify Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for commercial military payloads, it must complete two more successful orbital launches, for a total of four flights.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will have to complete four successful orbital flights as its pathway to certification under the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said Dec. 10 at the Spacepower conference. Garrant, who leads the Space Systems Command, said Blue Origin selected the four-flight benchmark and the government agreed. “The government is supporting a four-flight certification for New Glenn,” he told reporters. The rocket has logged two successful missions so far, and Garrant said a third launch is expected “earlier in the new year than later.” If upcoming flights stay on track, he added, “I think they’re going to be in a fantastic place to become our third certified provider and compete for missions.”
If certified, Blue Origin would join SpaceX and United Launch Alliance as the Space Force’s third heavy-lift launch provider.
It is surprising that the military is requiring four successful flights from Blue Origin, but required only two from ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, and certified that even though there were problems on Vulcan’s second flight.
These extra flights should not cause a significant delay, since Blue Origin is expecting to complete a number of launches in 2026 to meet its obligations under its Amazon Leo contract
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
A bit of residual ULA favoritism by Pentagon mossbacks one suspects. Not very significant in the long term.
”It is surprising that the military is requiring four successful flights from Blue Origin, but required only two from ULA’s new Vulcan rocket…”
No, it is not surprising. There are three pathways to certification for national security space launches: 2, 4, and 7 successful flights. The paths with more successful flights require less proprietary data to be shared with the Space Force. ULA shared more data. Blue Origin is sharing less. SpaceX shared the least.
”A bit of residual ULA favoritism by Pentagon mossbacks one suspects.”
There is no favoritism at all. It was Blue Origin who chose the pathway. It’s right there in Bob’s post:
”[Lt. Gen. Philip] Garrant, who leads the Space Systems Command, said Blue Origin selected the four-flight benchmark and the government agreed.”
mkent,
I suppose there is at least a superficial case that less revelation of proprietary matters to USSF should result in more pre-certification flights being required, but that amounts to favoritism toward suppliers providing no really new tech or capabilities – e.g., Vulcan -versus those who are doing so and would prefer that uniformed nosey parkers, who might be contemplating employment by competitors upon service retirement, be kept away from their proprietary advances to at least some degree. I think the notion that more “insight” by USSF staffers translates to more actual ability to determine future reliability is a charade and a fiction. All of that Vulcan “insight” didn’t keep a booster nozzle from falling off on flight 2.
According to Copilot, SpaceX flew three certification flights, completing in 2015, resulting in certification of Falcon 9 v1.1
Then SpaceX had two more hurdles to clear:
1. Recovering a national security launch booster – June 2020.
2. Reusing such a recovered booster in a subsequent national security launch – September 2020.
At this last step, SpaceX coined the term “flight proven” for reused boosters, used tongue-in-cheek at the time, but no longer!
Of course, SpaceX never quits improving anything, so documentation of the certification of each subsequent version must be quite the job!
Dick Eagleson observed: “All of that Vulcan “insight” didn’t keep a booster nozzle from falling off on flight 2.”
I’m still laughing.
I think mkent is on point here: there are indeed three pathways to NSSL certification, and ULA basically let the Air Force and Space Force move in and set up shop with the development team, like the old days. DoD massively underwrote Vulcan development, after all. I had figured Blue Origin was working from the 4 or 7 flight certification paths.
Anyway, I wonder how much ULA can bank on Pentagon favoritism like it once did, given how it’s been in bad odor in the E Ring the last couple of years thanks to lengthy Vulcan development delays. I think the Space Force and NRO *really* want New Glenn in their stable of certified launchers as soon as they can get it.
But it looks like that should be possible in 2026.