New Glenn on the launchpad and vertical for the first time
The first completely assembled New Glenn,
on the launchpad
Blue Origin’s first New Glenn rocket to be fully stacked and ready for launch was finally placed vertical on its Cape Canaveral launchpad late November 21, 2024.
For the first time, the company placed a fully integrated, flight-capable rocket on the launch pad Thursday evening. The company rolled the rocket out of the hangar at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) earlier. A static fire test with the full 98-meter-tall (320 ft) rocket is forthcoming, though a specific date hasn’t been announced.
…The upcoming integrated static fire test would be the first time that Blue Origin fuels a full-assembled. flight-ready New Glenn rocket. It previously conducted a static fire test of its upper stage, which saw a 15-second burn of the two BE-3U engines.
The picture to the right was released by the company that night.
No launch date has been announced. The present payload for this launch is the company’s own Blue Ring orbital tug on a Pentagon-supported test flight. The original payload, two smallsat NASA Mars orbiters built by Rocket Lab, had to be pulled when Blue Origin’s generally leisurely approach meant that it was unable to get the rocket ready in time to meet the October launch window.
That leisurely approach to business will have to end if Blue Origin really wants to compete in today’s modern aerospace industry.
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Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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The first completely assembled New Glenn,
on the launchpad
Blue Origin’s first New Glenn rocket to be fully stacked and ready for launch was finally placed vertical on its Cape Canaveral launchpad late November 21, 2024.
For the first time, the company placed a fully integrated, flight-capable rocket on the launch pad Thursday evening. The company rolled the rocket out of the hangar at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) earlier. A static fire test with the full 98-meter-tall (320 ft) rocket is forthcoming, though a specific date hasn’t been announced.
…The upcoming integrated static fire test would be the first time that Blue Origin fuels a full-assembled. flight-ready New Glenn rocket. It previously conducted a static fire test of its upper stage, which saw a 15-second burn of the two BE-3U engines.
The picture to the right was released by the company that night.
No launch date has been announced. The present payload for this launch is the company’s own Blue Ring orbital tug on a Pentagon-supported test flight. The original payload, two smallsat NASA Mars orbiters built by Rocket Lab, had to be pulled when Blue Origin’s generally leisurely approach meant that it was unable to get the rocket ready in time to meet the October launch window.
That leisurely approach to business will have to end if Blue Origin really wants to compete in today’s modern aerospace industry.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Chines? You call those chines?!
/s
Blue Origin really does need to find another gear. But I hear a lot of good things about Dave Limp. He seems to be cracking the whip. He just has a lot of ground to make up, and an org culture shift, from the Bob Smith era.
SpaceX was first to market. BO has A LOT of ground to make up. I hope they are successful. Space is BIG.
Competition is a good thing in that it will keep pressure on to control costs which will slow bloat.
I’d like to see Blue Origin “succeed,” in the sense of getting to at least a Rocket Lab-like launch cadence (which even then won’t make it a serious competitor to SpaceX), but I’ve been waiting for 20 years for them to get anything into orbit and am definitely in “I’ll believe it when I see it” mode.
I’d love to see a comparison of the ROI that each founder has received from his launch company. Bezos’ has got to be hugely negative.