Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, is preparing for the inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket. New Glenn is set to take to the skies on Sunday, January 12, marking the company’s first attempt to reach orbit.
The maiden launch of the New Glenn rocket, named in honor of astronaut John Glenn, is long overdue, given that development of the spacecraft first began over a decade ago. Since then, Blue Origin has pumped in billions of dollars into the project. While New Shepard (Blue Origin’s smaller rocket) has been used successfully for short trips to the edge of space, New Glenn is built for more complex missions, including the deployment of satellites and other payloads into orbit. New Glenn also comes with a reusable first stage, designed to return to Earth and land on a ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Of course, the development of New Glenn has not been without setbacks. Delays have been attributed to shifting priorities within Blue Origin, including its work on NASA’s lunar lander project. Furthermore, the company has undergone leadership changes, with Dave Limp recently taking over as CEO to accelerate the progress of the project. New Glenn was originally supposed to take to the stars on Friday, January 10, before the company pushed it back to January 12 “due to a high sea state in the Atlantic where we hope to land our booster.”
The inaugural mission, dubbed NG-1, will not carry operational satellites. Instead, the rocket will transport a test payload, the Blue Ring spacecraft platform, as well as test its capabilities, including flight. “This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” Jarrett Jones, SVP at New Glenn, commented on the matter. “But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”
A successful mission would bring the company closer to securing certification from the U.S. Department of Defense, enabling Blue Origin to compete for high-stakes contracts involving military and intelligence satellite launches. In mid-2023, Blue Origin was awarded a share of a $5.6 billion contract alongside SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA). In addition to government contracts, New Glenn is expected to play a pivotal role in the deployment of Amazon’s Kuiper satellite constellation. This initiative, which aims to provide global broadband internet, directly competes with SpaceX’s Starlink network, which already has a global presence.
