Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, is gearing up for the inaugural launch of its massive New Glenn rocket on Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This milestone marks a significant step towards challenging the industry dominance held by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Standing at 30 stories tall, New Glenn has been a focal point for Blue Origin over the past decade, with a multibillion-dollar investment aimed at meeting the demand for satellite constellation launches and competing with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
If successful, New Glenn could potentially launch Amazon’s broadband internet satellite constellation, Kuiper, to rival SpaceX’s Starlink network, intensifying competition in the industry. While Blue Origin has previously launched and landed its reusable New Shepard rocket, this launch would mark its first attempt to send payloads into Earth’s orbit, a goal Bezos set when founding the company 25 years ago.
Scheduled for a 1 am ET launch on Sunday, New Glenn will deploy its first Blue Ring satellite, designed for satellite servicing and national security missions in space. Compared to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, New Glenn is more powerful and capable of carrying larger batches of satellites. Despite not disclosing its launch pricing, New Glenn presents a competitive option in the market.
With a lineup of upcoming launches and partnerships with companies like Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Canada’s Telesat, New Glenn has garnered significant interest in the satellite industry. Blue Origin aims to capitalize on the rocket’s capabilities and attract more customers as it enters the market.
The development of New Glenn has seen its share of challenges, with changes in leadership and project delays. However, under the new leadership of Dave Limp, Blue Origin is pushing to accelerate development and bring the rocket to fruition. The company’s engineers are working tirelessly to ensure the success of the upcoming launch, reflecting a renewed focus and determination to achieve their goals.
“At its core, the primary goal for everyone involved has been to achieve the successful completion of this inaugural launch. New Glenn, a contender in the aerospace industry, faces competition from the Vulcan rocket developed by United Launch Alliance, a collaboration between Boeing and Lockheed. United Launch Alliance intends to enhance the capabilities of the Vulcan rocket in the near future.
The upcoming Sunday launch holds significant importance as it represents a crucial certification flight mandated by the U.S. Space Force. This certification is a prerequisite for New Glenn to be permitted to carry out missions involving national security payloads. New Glenn aspires to secure contracts for these high-stakes missions as part of a substantial procurement competition expected to conclude later this year.
(Joey Roulette reporting; Editing by Bill Berkrot)”
