Blue Origin fired up its new heavy-lift orbital rocket for the first time just hours after receiving federal clearance to conduct its maiden launch. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space exploration company, has successfully completed the first hotfire test of its biggest rocket, the New Glenn. The test took place at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The milestone comes just hours after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave the green light for the rocket’s first-ever launch. Standing atop Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the company’s New Glenn rocket conducted a successful 24-second seven-engine hotfire on Friday night (Dec. 27). It was the first time that the entire launch vehicle operated as a integrated system.
“This is a monumental milestone and a glimpse of what’s just around the corner for New Glenn’s first launch,” said Jarrett Jones, Blue Origin’s senior vice president for New Glenn, in a statement. “[This] success proves that our rigorous approach to testing — combined with our incredible tooling and design engineering — is working as intended.”
The FAA has issued Blue Origin a commercial space launch license for its New Glenn rocket. This milestone places Jeff Bezos’ company in competition with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for national security space missions, marking a significant move in the competitive space industry. In a major breakthrough for Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Jeff Bezos, the Federal Aviation Administration has granted a commercial space launch license for its New Glenn rocket. This development paves the way for the company’s entry into the fiercely competitive field of national security space missions.
Blue Origin joins a select group that includes Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, as contenders for crucial Department of Defense projects. The move represents a significant step forward for the company in securing a foothold in the lucrative market segment. The license affirms Blue Origin’s readiness to challenge established leaders in the sector and reflects growing confidence in its capabilities to deliver on large-scale, government-backed space initiatives.
The static firing of New Glenn’s first stage BE-4 rocket engines concluded a multi-day test campaign that included inert functional and tanking tests. The vehicle was configured with the first and second stages it will use on its first test flight, NG-1, and a payload test article made-up from manufacturing test demonstrator fairings, a high-capacity fixed adapter flight unit and a 45,000 pounds (20,400 kilograms) payload mass simulator.
NG-1 will carry the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a demonstrator for Blue Origin’s multi-mission space mobility platform designed to deliver payloads to geostationary orbit (GEO), cislunar and interplanetary space destinations. “Well, all we have left to do is mate our encapsulated payload… and then LAUNCH!” wrote Dave Limp, Blue Origin’s chief executive officer, on the social media network X on Friday.
The pathfinder was developed by Blue Origin’s In-Space Systems business unit. It will test Blue Ring’s core flight, ground systems, and operational capabilities. NG-1 will carry the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload as part of the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Orbital Logistics prototype effort. DIU funding is helping to enable future Department of Defense missions. The demonstrator includes a communications array, power systems, and a flight computer affixed to a secondary payload adapter ring. The pathfinder will validate Blue Ring’s communications capabilities from orbit to ground. The mission will also test its in-space telemetry, tracking and command hardware, and ground-based radiometric tracking that will be used on the future Blue Ring production space vehicle. The pathfinder will remain onboard New Glenn’s second stage for the duration of an expected six-hour mission.
Source: Space & Blue Origin
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