Blue Origin Is Approaching the New Glenn First Launch, Targets Mid-October

The American space company Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, is preparing to begin the final phase of preparations for the launch of the New Glenn rocket. The second stage of the rocket was delivered to the launch complex in Florida.

New Glenn’s First Launch In October

Blue Origin is preparing for the fire tests before the New Glenn launch carrying NASA mission. “We’re looking forward to firing up those two BE-3Us on New Glenn’s second stage in a few days,” the company wrote on X.

Within two weeks, Blue Origin plans to conduct a static fire test of the rocket’s upper stage, powered by two BE-3U engines. New Glenn will then send two ESCAPADE mission spacecraft to Mars. The launch window opens from 13 to 21 October.

New Glenn rocket has everything to become a strong competitor on the market, with partial reusability like SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and a capacity to carry heavy payloads into various orbits. Blue Origin says it is designed for a minimum of 25 missions. New Glenn is expected to be able to deliver up to 50 tons of payload into low Earth orbit.

Blue Origin’s exclusive launch pad Jacklyn

Also, the company have shared a photo of its landing vessel, named Jacklyn. The floating launch pad is based out of Port Canaveral, Florida. 

Construction of Jacklyn started in Romania in early 2023, with finishing works undertaken at Damen Shipyards in Brest, France, from April 2024. Following brief sea trials, Jacklyn departed Brest for Florida on 8 August 2024, to enter service ahead of the debut launch of the New Glenn rocket.

ESCAPADE mission details

It is not yet clear whether Blue Origin will have time to integrate, test and launch ESCAPADE on schedule. The company must successfully conduct a test launch of the second-stage engines and then take the first stage to the launch complex at Cape Canaveral.

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission—Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers—aims to study ion and sputtered escape from Mars. ESCAPADE features two identical smallsats that will orbit Mars to study the planet’s magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. Rocket Lab designed and built the twin spacecraft, Blue and Gold.