Blue Origin moves first stage of its New Glenn rocket from factory to launchpad hanger
In what might be the first step in assemblying Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for the first time (followed by a launch), the company yesterday transported the rocket’s first stage from its factory to its launchpad hanger.
Transported by a series of multiwheeled carriages and an arching structure, the 189-foot-tall first stage for what will be a 320-foot-tall rocket when fully assembled traveled horizontally on a 22-mile trip from the New Glenn factory in Merritt Island through Kennedy Space Center over to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station where Blue Origin has a hangar and launch pad at Launch Complex 36.
Jeff Bezos has said the company plans that first launch before the end of this year, though the company has been making this same promise now for the last three years, and is years behind schedule. What makes this promise different however is that this time we are seeing actual hardware moving towards the launchpad.
The article also gives a rough update on the company’s effort to manufacture the many BE-4 rocket engines needed for New Glenn (7) and ULA’s Vulcan rocket (2). The two engines for the next Vulcan launch in April are presently undergoing final testing at Blue Origin’s test facility in Texas, and the company says it is about to ramp up production. It thus appears that getting enough engines built is still the main obstacle to launch. We shall finally know later this year if Blue Origin has solved this problem.
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 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
In what might be the first step in assemblying Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for the first time (followed by a launch), the company yesterday transported the rocket’s first stage from its factory to its launchpad hanger.
Transported by a series of multiwheeled carriages and an arching structure, the 189-foot-tall first stage for what will be a 320-foot-tall rocket when fully assembled traveled horizontally on a 22-mile trip from the New Glenn factory in Merritt Island through Kennedy Space Center over to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station where Blue Origin has a hangar and launch pad at Launch Complex 36.
Jeff Bezos has said the company plans that first launch before the end of this year, though the company has been making this same promise now for the last three years, and is years behind schedule. What makes this promise different however is that this time we are seeing actual hardware moving towards the launchpad.
The article also gives a rough update on the company’s effort to manufacture the many BE-4 rocket engines needed for New Glenn (7) and ULA’s Vulcan rocket (2). The two engines for the next Vulcan launch in April are presently undergoing final testing at Blue Origin’s test facility in Texas, and the company says it is about to ramp up production. It thus appears that getting enough engines built is still the main obstacle to launch. We shall finally know later this year if Blue Origin has solved this problem.
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 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
An impressive rocket…