It has been more than 20 years since Amazon boss Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin, the company that aims to make his dream come true: the large-scale use of near-Earth space.
But apart from a few tourist flights for minute-long visits to space, apparently not much has come of it so far. That should change in the evening, January 9th, at 7:00 p.m. our time: The partly reusable heavy-lift rocket New Glenn is scheduled to complete its maiden flight (viaSpace.comandBlue Origin).
If the test is successful, Blue Origin will catapult itself onto the global tableau of the most important space companies of the 21st century - and perhaps even immediately overtake former giants such as Arianespace from Europe.
We explain to you what the new rocket means for the global space industry and how the first flight should take place.
Everything you need to know about New Glenn's first flight
- The name:New Glenn was named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, i.e. in space (viaTime).
- Height98 Meter,Widthseven meters. This makes it around 20 meters smaller than SpaceX's Starship, but also towers over the Falcon family by 20 meters. It also ranks in the middle in terms of diameter: significantly larger than the Falcons, but two meters less than the Starship (viaBlue OriginandSpaceX)
- It can carry 45 tonsinto low Earth orbit (LEO)bring (Starship150 tons,Falcon 918 tons,Falcon Heavy50 tons andAriane 622 tons). However, reusability varies. Ariane 6, for example, not at all and the Starship completely.
- Price per start:According to analysts, the New Glenn is expected to cost around $70 million. That would roughly correspond to the Falcon 9. But the ratio between the rockets is only likely to level off in the coming years (viaCNN).
When does New Glenn start?
According to current status, the launch window opens on Friday, January 10, 2025 at 1:00 a.m. local time. This corresponds to 7:00 p.m. CET on Thursday, January 9th for us. The rocket can take off within the following three hours.
Is there anything on board and what are the goals?
According to Blue Origin, the aim of the maiden flight is primarily to bring the test payload safely into orbit and the first stage to land on a ship, called Jacklyn. On board during the mission simply known as NG-1Blue Ring
.
To put it simply, it is a type of mini spacecraft that brings the actual payloads into different orbits, such as satellites. It also has other capabilities that Blue Origin must demonstrate so that the company can apply for lucrative government contracts, as Blue Origin writes. The following shows you roughly how the mission will workAnimation on YouTubeor the following graphic.
Can I watch the launch?
The launch will be broadcast live on the Internet. Either you watch Blue Origin directly on YouTube or you switch to channels that even comment on the stream in German, such as “Mars Chronicles” or “Vertical Starter”.
Who is New Glenn competing with?
Given Jeff Bezos' goals, it's obvious that your first impulse would be to imagine a competitor to SpaceX's Starship. But that's not the case. Some of the technology is certainly suitable for being at the forefront of payloads in the future, but for now Blue Origin is only attacking the Falcon rocket series with the New Glenn. And here, according to experts, she has a good chance of getting a piece of the pie (vianewspaceeconomy).
Why did New Glenn take so long to develop?
The reasons are many and difficult to explain briefly, but a crucial point can be found in the opposite approach to Elon Musk's SpaceX. Instead of rapidly testing recently developed hardware in flight, Blue Origin takes a more conservative approach to development, simulations, ground testing, modifications and more. Before a flight, as many sources of error as possible should be eliminated. SpaceX allows itself a significantly higher margin of error (viaspaceinsider).
engines
New Glenn flies entirely with Blue Origin's own developments. Seven BE-4 engines that can be ignited multiple times and can be throttled heavily operate under the first stage. They burn liquid methane (natural gas) and oxygen and fall into the category of so-called units with a closed staged combustion cycle. The engines successfully flew for the first time on board a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket at the beginning of 2024.
The second stage uses two BE-3Us that use liquefied hydrogen and oxygen to generate thrust. This is a new variant of the BE-3s, which have been fueling Bezos' company's New Shepard suborbital vehicle for years (viaBlue Origin).
If you would like to know more about the classification of engines and also find out what types of engines there are and how they work, please take a look.
More about space on GameStar
Reusability
The first stage of New Glenn will land after successful launch and separation from the upper stage and will therefore be reusable including the BE-4 engines. The goal is to use a New Glenn first stage 25 times.A report from Ars TechnicaAccording to Blue Origin, they are already working on a version of the upper stage that can also return and be used again, called Jarvis.
Reusability is the advantage that currently makes SpaceX virtually unrivaled. Because not having to rebuild a rocket and all of its engines, or at least many of the engines, is a virtually unbeatable price advantage. If Blue Origin manages to provide a partially or completely reusable rocket with the New Glenn, they would be real competition for SpaceX in the medium-duty loads.
The Starship would remain unchallenged for the time being, but Jeff Bezos and his company would be the world's strongest pursuer of Elon Musk's SpaceX.
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