Blue Origin has carried out the debut launch of the New Glenn heavy rocket. The second stage of the carrier successfully reached orbit. The first stage was lost during the attempted return to Earth.
The New Glenn rocket has a two-stage design. Its height is 98 meters and its diameter is seven meters. The rocket’s first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines that use methane as propellant and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. The second stage is equipped with two BE-3U engines powered by a mixture of liquid hydrogen and oxygen.
New Glenn is capable of launching up to 45 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit and 13 tons into geo-transition orbit. The first stage of New Glenn is reusable. After separation, it should land on a barge in the ocean, similar to the Falcon 9 first stage.
The date of New Glenn’s first flight was postponed several times. Finally, its launch took place on January 16, 2025. After separation, the first stage proceeded to perform the return maneuver. Unfortunately, its telemetry was lost shortly after the braking maneuver began. A short time later, Blue Origin confirmed that the stage had failed to make a landing on the barge.
As for the second stage, it successfully entered Earth orbit. The payload is a prototype of the Blue Ring satellite platform. It is conceived as a versatile vehicle that will be able to perform many different tasks, from an orbital refueler and thruster to a data relay. The prototype will not separate from the second stage of New Glenn. The bundle will spend six hours in space, after which it will be deorbited and burn up in the atmosphere.
Despite the failure of the first stage return, overall the mission should be judged a significant success. New Glenn managed to reach orbit on its first attempt, something that not many carriers have been able to do. This gives Blue Origin hope that its brainchild will be able to challenge SpaceX’s rockets.
