A little while ago, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket was launched on its maiden mission, called NG-1. For the occasion, it was carrying a prototype of the Blue Ring, a space platform that has the purpose of carrying payloads to be put into orbit, also under development by Blue Origin. The second stage worked correctly and the Blue Ring separated reaching the planned orbit. The secondary objective was to land the first stage, which didn’t succeed.
Blue Origin was founded by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos with the aim of becoming a cutting-edge operator in the aerospace field. For some years, it conducted suborbital launches, even with a crew, of the small New Shepard carrier rocket, but its ambitions are far greater. The New Glenn, named after astronaut John Glenn, is a rocket that adopts solutions such as partial reusability to be competitive at the highest levels now and in the future, including for Moon and deep space missions.
The New Glenn rocket’s first stage uses seven BE-4 methane engines, developed by Blue Origin. The original plans were to produce the BE-4 engines only for the New Glenn, but following an agreement, they have already been used by ULA for its Vulcan rocket, which conducted its maiden launch almost exactly one year ago.
The New Glenn rocket’s second stage uses two BE-3U liquid hydrogen-oxygen engines. At this early stage of use, the second stage isn’t reusable, but the company intends to continue its development to enable it to land and get reused as well.
Blue Origin used a more conventional process than competitor SpaceX to develop the New Glenn rocket, with no prototype launches and limited footage of its operations. As a result, the first live broadcast was of the NG-1 maiden launch.
The fact that two of the richest men in the world own aerospace companies that develop next-generation rockets helps create considerable publicity for the activities of Blue Origin and SpaceX. The ambitions for Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are considerable.
The primary mission was a success because the two stages of the New Glenn rocket did their job and put the Blue Ring platform into its intended orbit. The Blue Ring had no payloads to deploy but there was still the goal to test its systems by communicating with the mission control center.
The secondary mission consisted of the controlled landing of the New Glenn rocket’s first stage on the landing platform vessel called Jacklyn. Contact with the first stage was lost during the landing maneuver and Blue Origin later confirmed that this goal hadn’t been achieved.
New Glenn is much bigger than the New Shepard, the small rocket that has been making suborbital flights and then landing for years, therefore the maneuver offers much greater complexity. The company has still collected a lot of new data that is impossible to obtain from simulations or other types of tests which will help perfect the landing system.
Overall, the NG-1 mission was a success and now Blue Origin can think about starting commercial missions. Jeff Bezos’ company already has contracts with NASA and intends to certify the New Glenn rocket to obtain contracts with the U.S. military. In a market that is now dominated by SpaceX, Blue Origin’s success adds a real competitor that can further push progress in this field.
