A “spying” version of a New Glenn rocket in the company’s manufacturing facility.
Blue Origins
Jeff Bezos’ space launch, Blue Origin, delayed the launch of the first New Glenn rocket by a year, announcing that they had lost major Pentagon launch contracts to rivals SpaceX and ULA as a civilian for the move in the schedule.
Blue Origin is targeting the fourth quarter of 2022 for the first time New Glenn has launched, having set the end of 2021 as the deadline. The company said the “updated virgin flight target follows Space Force’s recent decision not to select New Glenn” for the latest round of national security launch contracts.
The Department of Defense in August awarded SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance, the latter as a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, with billions worth contracts to launch over five years. The Pentagon chose SpaceX and ULA over bids from Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman.
“We hope to launch NSSL payloads in the future, and remain committed to serving the U.S. national defense mission,” Blue Origin said in a news release Thursday.
An artist’s impression of a standing New Glenn rocket published in Florida.
Blue Origins
New Glenn is the next generation rocket that Blue Origin has been developing, with a rocket booster designed to land and be reused in the same way as Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets at SpaceX. Blue Origin expects all New Glenn rockets to be able to launch and land 25 times.
The rocket would be larger than any other vehicle currently flying, and the company says it has invested $ 2.5 billion in the New Glenn development. New Glenn is about 320 feet high and is designed to lift about 45,000 kilograms of payload to the low Earth Orbit.
Aerial view of the company’s Florida manufacturing and testing facility.
Blue Origins
Blue Origin has mocked New Glenn’s rise rate to run tests ahead of its first release from Florida.
The company has invested heavily in manufacturing and testing facilities at Cape Canaveral, with approximately 1 million square feet of buildings. The company noted that of the $ 2.5 billion invested in New Glenn, approximately $ 1 billion was spent on rebuilding the post-LC LC-36.
Blue Origin’s work at LC-36 includes the construction of a tower that will support the launch of people on New Glenn, which the company hopes to do later.
Bezos personally funds the development of Blue Origin by selling part of its Amazon stock. While it is said that it sells about $ 1 billion of Amazon shares each year to fund the space company, Bezos has increased its sales of Amazon stock, adding that worth more than $ 10 billion in 2020.
Half rocket mast, also known as half-balanced, for New Glenn.
Blue Origins
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