The new year is barely a week old, and Florida’s Space Coast is tense with anticipation. The debut of a new rocket never fails to draw throngs of onlookers to Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, Titusville, and the other charming coastal towns which surround Cape Canaveral. However, even for an area which is intimately familiar with rocketry, the impending launch feels special. While several next-generation, heavy-lift rockets have made their maiden voyages in recent years, they have all been fielded by the aerospace industry’s juggernauts: NASA, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance. In contrast, the rocket which currently stands on Space Launch Complex 36 is built by a new entrant, whose actions have often been shrouded in a veil of secrecy. After 25 years of hard work, Blue Origin is ready for its moment of truth.
Tomorrow’s launch will be the maiden voyage for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. The fully-stacked New Glenn is an imposing machine. While most launch companies gradually build experience with the demanding physics of orbital launches by developing a small rocket as their first product, Blue Origin moved directly to a vehicle which can compete with the largest rockets on the market. New Glenn stands 320 feet (98 meters) in height, just 40 feet shy of the Saturn V which sent men to the Moon 55 years ago.
New Glenn is scheduled to lift off early tomorrow morning (January 13th) at 1:00 AM EST. The launch window extends through 4:00 AM. Blue Origin is planning to broadcast the launch live on its website, and AmericaSpace will have remote cameras on site to capture high-resolution photos and videos of the event. It is worth noting that New Glenn is extremely complex and untested in flight, and it would be unreasonable to expect a perfect first mission.
Like the maiden voyages of NASA’s SLS and SpaceX’s Starship, the launch could easily be scrubbed due to difficulties with loading cryogenic propellant. Once the rocket is released from its launch pad, it will need to complete several difficult milestones to reach orbit. This will be Blue Origin’s first attempt to ignite a cluster of seven BE-4 engines simultaneously, to light the engines of a rocket’s second stage in midair, and to land a rocket on a floating platform.
Regardless of what happens tomorrow, it will signify the beginning of Blue Origin’s transformation from a research and development lab to a major player in the launch industry. It is the culmination of a long and winding journey for the 25-year-old company. Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos is a lifelong supporter of space exploration. He grew up reading books by the space settlement visionary Gerard O’Neill and led his university’s space exploration club. Like Elon Musk, his counterpart at SpaceX, Bezos was disappointed that America willingly sacrificed its ability to explore deep space following the end of the Apollo program. With Blue Origin, he resolved to rectify this mistake by making spaceflight affordable and routine.
Bezos has a lofty long-term vision for Blue Origin. The company’s mission statement is “Building a Road to Space.” After founding Amazon, Bezos realized that the business only succeeded because organizations such as the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx had established a robust infrastructure for shipping packages across long distances. Similarly, Bezos wants his company’s rockets to be affordable and reliable enough for younger entrepreneurs to start profitable businesses which focus on in-space activities…