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Jeff Bezos’ blue origin A test version of its giant orbital rocket lifted off from its launch pad for the first time on Wednesday, inaugurating the start of a major test campaign ahead of the first launch later this year.
The test version of the rocket has all the Blue Origin hardware, but not all of it will necessarily go to space. Both the second stage and the payload fairing located on top of the vehicle are stand-ins during testing; The rocket also has no BE-4 engines, as they are not needed for the upcoming tests. Those engines, also made by Blue Origin, are undergoing their own test campaigns at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the company’s facilities in West Texas.
Upcoming tests with this launch vehicle will let teams practice vehicle integration and transportation to and from the launch pad, and what is called integrated tanking testing. For that test, the booster will be fueled with liquid nitrogen (which is not used during the actual launch) to verify that the fluid systems are functioning properly. The trial is expected to take at least a week, according to Blue Origin CEO David Limp said on linkedin,
Once testing is complete, the vehicle will return to Blue’s massive garage at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida, where engineers will outfit the reusable first stage with seven BE-4 engines and get it ready for flight. Will connect with the second phase. (The BE-4 engines received their flight legacy earlier this year, when they powered United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan Centaur rocket launch.)
New Glenn heading to the launch pad. Image Credit: blue origin
Limp expressed confidence that the vehicle will meet its target launch date by the end of this year: “Manufacturing progress continues at our factory with multiple boosters, fairings and the second stage,” he said. “We look forward to bringing this heavy-duty capability to our customers later this year.”
Bringing the new vehicle to market will mark a new chapter for the 24-year-old company. The company is known for conducting space tourism flights with its suborbital rocket, New Shepard. That vehicle, which is 60 feet long, only flew about 66 miles — what many consider the limit of space, but a far cry from reaching orbital space.
The New Glen is much more powerful. The 320-foot-long launch vehicle is Blue Origin’s first heavy-lift rocket, designed to launch more than 45 tons of payload into low Earth orbit. The reusable first stage will land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean, just as SpaceX retrieves its boosters, and is designed to fly for at least 25 missions.
The vehicle has already been tapped by several customers – the first launch will carry a pair of NASA spacecraft named ESCAPADE, with their final destination being Mars. Bezos’s other company Amazon also awarded New Glenn billion for up to 27 launches for its upcoming Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation. Blue Origin also launched for telecommunications providers Telecast and Eutelsat later in the decade.
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