In 2021, the company initiated conceptual design work on approaches to potentially make the second stage reusable as well, with the project codenamed "Project Jarvis". Like the New Shepard, New Glenn's first stage is also designed to be reusable. The 7 meter-diameter fairing is claimed to have twice the payload volume of "any commercial launch system" and to be the biggest payload fairing in the world. Its first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines. New Glenn is a heavy-lift launch vehicle with a diameter of 7 meters (23ft). Illustrations of the vehicle, and the high-level specifications, were initially publicly unveiled in September 2016. Named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, design work on the vehicle began in early 2012. The launch date has been set back because of numerous delays. New Glenn is a heavy-lift launch vehicle that is in the development stage and will be ready for a "Go for Launch" in Q3 of 2024. New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, Illustration of atmospheric trajectory Blue Origin said in its press release that New Shepard flights would resume as soon as possible. After a six-month investigation, Blue Origin pinpointed the cause of the anomaly as a thermal-structure failure of the BE-3 engine nozzle which caused a thrust misalignment that triggered the capsule's emergency escape system to activate. The remaining New Shepard launch vehicles were grounded pending an FAA investigation into the incident. The launch escape system triggered and the capsule landed safely. In September 2022, an uncrewed mission of the New Shepard had an anomaly due to a failure of the BE-3 main engine. On June 4, 2022, New Shepard completed its fifth crewed mission launch and the sixth crewed flight took place on August 4, 2022. The Fourth crewed flight happened in March 2022. The second and third crewed missions of New Shepard took place in October and December 2021. The passengers were Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen, after the unnamed auction winner (later revealed to have been Justin Sun) dropped out due to a scheduling conflict. The flight lasted approximately 10 minutes and crossed the Kármán line. On July 20, 2021, the New Shepard performed its first crewed mission into space. New Shepard ticket sales brought in $50 million through June 2022. New Shepard performed six crewed flights between July 2021 and August 2022, taking a mix of sponsored celebrities such as Wally Funk, William Shatner as well as paying customers. The flight was approximately 10 minutes and crossed the Kármán line. On July 20, 2021, the company successfully completed its first crewed mission, Blue Origin NS-16, into space using its New Shepard launch vehicle. New Glenn is planned to launch in Q3 of 2024. The New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle can be configured in both two-stage and three-stage variants. Blue Origin publicly released the high-level design of the vehicle and announced its name in September 2016 as "New Glenn". In January 2016, Blue Origin indicated that the new rocket would be many times larger than New Shepard. The heavy-lift launch vehicles main power is supported by two BE-4 engines.Īfter initiating the development of an orbital rocket system prior to 2012, and stating in 2013 on their website that the first stage would perform a powered vertical landing and be reusable, Blue Origin publicly announced their orbital launch vehicle intentions in September 2015. ULA has said that the first flight of its Vulcan Centaur heavy-lift launch vehicle is scheduled to launch in Q3 of 2023. Blue Origin moved into the orbital spaceflight technology development business in 2014, initially as a rocket engine supplier via a contractual agreement to build the BE-4 rocket engine, for major US launch system operator United Launch Alliance (ULA). The company primarily employs an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its prior work. Rob Meyerson joined Blue Origin in 2003 and served as the company's president before leaving the company in 2018. History īlue Origin was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and current executive chairman of Amazon. The company is working on a fourth rocket engine, called the BE-7, which is still under development and when completed, will be used on planetary bodies other then Earth. Blue Origin has three engines in production including the BE-3U, BE-3PM and BE-4. In early 2021, the company received over $275 million from the U.S Government (NASA) for lunar lander projects and sub-orbital research flights. Blue Origin makes rocket engines for United Launch Alliance and other customers as well as manufactures its own rockets, spacecraft and heavy-lift launch vehicles. Blue Origin, LLC is an American aerospace, defense, space exploration company and launch service provider headquartered in Kent, Washington, United States.
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