Blue Origin finally gets FAA license to launch New Glenn, now targeting January 6, 2025
The first completely assembled New Glenn,
on the launchpad
The FAA, after months of apparent delays, today finally issued Blue Origin a license to launch its New Glenn rocket for a period covering the next five years.
As has now become the FAA’s custom, in issuing this license it also brags about its success in issuing the license “well in advance of the statutory deadline” for doing so.
What a crock. Blue Origin and NASA were originally targeting an October launch of New Glenn carrying two Mars orbiters, but had to cancel when the rocket couldn’t lift off during the six-day launch window. Though delays at Blue Origin certainly contributed to this cancellation, I suspect the FAA’s red tape played a major factor as well.
According to another source, Blue Origin is now targeting a launch date of January 6, 2025. The company is presently doing a static fire test on the launchpad.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.
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
The first completely assembled New Glenn,
on the launchpad
The FAA, after months of apparent delays, today finally issued Blue Origin a license to launch its New Glenn rocket for a period covering the next five years.
As has now become the FAA’s custom, in issuing this license it also brags about its success in issuing the license “well in advance of the statutory deadline” for doing so.
What a crock. Blue Origin and NASA were originally targeting an October launch of New Glenn carrying two Mars orbiters, but had to cancel when the rocket couldn’t lift off during the six-day launch window. Though delays at Blue Origin certainly contributed to this cancellation, I suspect the FAA’s red tape played a major factor as well.
According to another source, Blue Origin is now targeting a launch date of January 6, 2025. The company is presently doing a static fire test on the launchpad.
Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.
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
Targeting Jan 6 2024? Last paragraph.
Sounds right.
David: Oy. We begin another year, whereby my readers will correct me repeatedly for typing the previous year’s date in error.
I’m not complaining about you letting me know. I appreciate it. Thank you. I am just anticipating the likelihood that I will make this error numerous times in the coming weeks.
Alas, with Blue Origin’s rate of progress, I can believe the Jan 26, 2024 schedule.
Did they get the static fire done?
David: No. Scrubbed for today.
So the FAA isn’t just impeding SpaceX but Blue Origin too? And Blue Origin is launching from Cape Canaveral which has been launching NASA and Air force missiles all 63+ years of my life. The Blue Origin site LC-36 has also had one of the largest failures when an Atlas fell back on the pad in the 60s. What more can you do to the site? Are FAA space administrators hired for their cowardliness and timidity? January 20th can not come quickly enough start the clean the out the Aurigean stables that are the halls of Washington D.C.
David: Turns out I was wrong. They did the hot fire test, though late.
Tregonsee314 wrote: “So the FAA isn’t just impeding SpaceX but Blue Origin too?”
It seems that the FAA has been impeding pretty much everyone with new rockets to launch. Several small rocket projects have been shelved, over the past four years, with the companies announcing a switch to larger launchers. After all, if the development delays are the same for the cheap, low profit small rockets than for the higher profit large rockets, then why not go to the higher profit rockets?
The operational rockets have been largely untouched by the overregulation, although SpaceX could complain that failures of its operational Falcons have been more scrutinized than in years past. Never before has a failed landing required a fleet grounding, and there were failures of the upper stage deorbit before, again without a required grounding.
Scanty evidence may suggest that the FAA is not unfairly picking on Starship’s test launches but that for the past few years the competent people at the FAA have been saddled with an incompetent regulatory system (or incompetent management). This incompetence has shown up most prominently for Starship, because that is the only one that has been trying to do a lot of test launches during the current (incompetent) administration.