Blue Origin Plans To Launch New Glenn Rocket By Year-End, Final Test Is Ahead

In 2016, Blue Origin announced the development of their New Glenn rocket, originally slated for a 2020 launch. After years of delays, the rocket’s development is finally complete, and it is now gearing up for its highly anticipated official launch later this month.

New Glenn To Launch By Year’s End

Updated on 10th December

Blue Origin states that it plans to launch its New Glenn rocket by the end of the year. However, the company is still awaiting regulatory clearance to conduct a crucial final test of the large vehicle.

The hot fire test will involve igniting all seven BE-4 engines on the rocket’s first stage and running them at full thrust while the vehicle remains stationary on the launch pad. This process is intended to simulate the rocket’s performance during liftoff.

If the test proceeds successfully, Blue Origin will then attach the fairing, the section that houses the payload, as the final step before launch.

Details On The New Glenn Rocket

On 22 November, Blue Origin announced on their X that the New Glenn rocket had been successfully positioned upright at Cape Canaveral.

A few days before, Blue Origin took to their official X (former Twitter) page to share news on the advancement of the New Glenn rocket. The post announced the official mating of the GS-1 (first stage) and GS-2 (second stage) of the rocket.

This announcement is not only great news for Blue Origin but also for the space community that has been in expectation of this rocket’s official launch. Following the mating of the first and second stage of New Glenn, Blue Origin is scheduling the rocket’s debut flight for later this month.

While there is no set date for the official debut launch, there are some details. Blue Ocean will launch the New Glenn rocket from the firm’s Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States.

Already there are two known payloads that the New Glenn rocket will take to space. The first payload will be Blue Origin Blue Ring Technology, which is an orbital platform for pit stops during space missions. Blue Origin refers to the launching of this payload as the DarkSky-1 (DS-1) mission. New Glenn’s second mission will be the launch of AST SpaceMobile’s next-gen Block 2 BlueBird satellites to space.

The first batch of Block 2 BlueBird satellites to orbit space will launch in 2025. According to Abel Avellan, AST SpaceMobile’s founder, chairman and CEO, “New Glenn’s performance and unprecedented capacity” make it ideal for launching the Block 2 BlueBird satellites into space.

Specifications Of The New Glenn Rocket

The soon-to-launch New Glenn rocket is on the large side, as it stands at around 320 feet tall (98 meters) in its three-stage version. However, in its two-stage version, the rocket stands at 270 feet (82 meters) tall.

New Glenn can lift over 45 tons to low Earth orbit and 13 tons to Geostationary orbit. Supporting the New Glenn will be seven Blue Origin in-house designed BE-4 engines. The first stage of the New Glenn rocket is reusable and can go on 25 missions. In the coming weeks, we’ll see this long-awaited rocket in action as it launches into space for the first time.