Blue Origin's New rocket Glenn ready for takeoff. After some weather delays over the weekend Space company owned by Jeff Bezos said the $2.5 billion reusable rocket, which has been in development for nearly 13 years, will target its first launch will not occur until Monday, January 13th. The three-hour launch window will begin at 1:00 a.m. ET. The webcast will begin an hour before launch, and you can watch New Glenn take off on the Blue Origin Channel. website, X or company YouTube channel.
New Glenn's maiden flight (NG-1) will be its first Space Force national security certification flight, needed to compete with ships such as SpaceX under contracts of the Department of Defense and National Intelligence. Its reusable first stage is designed for at least 25 flights. Blue Origin produces several New Glenn vehicles.
Blue Origin describes The new Glenn is like “our giant reusable rocket, built for big things.” The “giant” option is appropriate: the rocket is more than 320 feet (98 m) tall. As for its “big things,” that includes the metaphorical (like potential missions to Mars) and the literal: it can carry more than 45 metric tons to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and 13 tons to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). For comparison, the opponent Falcon Heavy from SpaceX can lift about 64 metric tons into Earth orbit and nearly 27 tons into GTO orbit.
New Glenn will embark on its maiden voyage aboard the prototype Blue Ring Pathfinder multi-mission ship. The ship is designed to transport, refuel and deploy satellites and other spacecraft and can deliver three tons of cargo into space. Friday's launch will test Blue Ring's core flight/ground systems and operational capabilities.
After New Glenn lifts off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, its reusable first stage will land on the barge Jacklyn, floating several hundred miles away in the Atlantic Ocean.
New Glenn, named after pioneering astronaut John Glenn, The final rehearsal for the first launch countdown has ended December 27. After several countdown attempts over several hours, the BE-4 rocket's seven engines ignited and fired for 24 seconds (using 13 seconds at 100 percent thrust), paving the way for Friday's target launch. Initially, the first flight of the rocket was scheduled for Octobercarrying two NASA satellites bound for Mars, but the launch was canceled because it was not ready by then.