New Glenn set to debut in October!

Blue Origin announced on August 23rd that the first launch of New Glenn would occur no earlier than October 13th, 2024. This first launch will be carrying the two ESCAPADE spacecraft, as well as sending them toward Mars!

This maiden launch date comes a few years after the company's original goal of a 2020 debut for New Glenn. Blue Origin was awarded the launch contract for the ESCAPADE spacecraft duo in February of 2023.

The two ESCAPADE spacecraft are tiny in comparison to New Glenn, weighing about 180 kilograms each and with a mission budget of about 80 million United States Dollars. For the launch, Blue Origin is reported to have been awarded 20 million from NASA.

The ESCAPADE, Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, mission is a dual spacecraft mission to Mars for studying the planet's magnetosphere as well as solar wind. This mission is led by the University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, who will be responsible for mission management, systems engineering, science leadership, navigation, operations, the electron & ion electrostatic analyzers, and science data processing and archiving.

The two spacecraft were manufactured by Rocket Lab, based off of their Explorer spacecraft bus. Some of the components and instruments were also contributed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Advanced Space LLC has also assisted with mission design.

What is New Glenn?

New Glenn is Blue Origin's partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle. The vehicle will launch from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, located in Florida.

Blue Origin claims that New Glenn will be able to send up to 45,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit when reused. It is also claimed that it plans to send 13,600 kilograms to a geosynchronous transfer orbit when reused.

The first-stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen to generate 1,746 tons of thrust. New Glenn's second-stage is powered by two BE-3U engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to generate 145 tons of thrust.

For recovery, New Glenn plans to use four fins located near the top of the booster, to control the boosters' descent when unpowered, and six landing legs that are stowed at the bottom of the booster during flight.

On the launchpad, the rocket is 98 meters tall and 7 meters in diameter, Blue Origin has not yet said how much the launch vehicle weighs fully fuelled.

Who is Blue Origin?

Blue Origin is an American aerospace company founded in September of 2000 and headquartered in Kent, Washington, in the United States. The company currently operates the New Shepard sub-orbital reusable launch vehicle and the heavy-lift partially reusable orbital launch vehicle called New Glenn.

Blue Origin was founded, and is still owned, by Jeff Bezos with the following long-term vision:

"Blue Origin was founded with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue Origin envisions a time when people can tap into the limitless resources of space and enable the movement of damaging industries into space to preserve Earth, humanity’s blue origin."