Rocket Lab's Mars probes reach launch site ahead of 1st flight on Blue Origin New Glenn rocket (photos)

[Admin]

The twin ESCAPADE satellites have arrived in Florida for the highly anticipated inaugural flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn megarocket in October.

Rocket Lab's Mars probes reach launch site ahead of 1st flight on Blue Origin New Glenn rocket (photos) : Read more

 

[JPL_ACE]

The failures put Blue somewhere between SpaceX and Boeing.

 

[Philly]

The failures put Blue somewhere between SpaceX and Boeing.

Boeing in spite of their current issues, have made it to orbit and has a long and successful track record. BO is still in the starting blocks after being around for 25 years. I wish BO well but let's not kid ourselves, after 25 years of existing this isn't a good track record. Without an owner that has spare billions to burn it would of been bankrupt a long time ago.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

It will be interesting to see if they can stick the first landing attempt on their ship. That would be a feat.

 

[Philly]

Humm, asking only for a friend. But am I missing something?

Is the NG rocket fully stacked yet? Has it rolled out to the pad and had it's brand new fueling procedures tested fully yet? Remember, the 2nd stage used Hydrogen as a fuel, and that is always tricky. Has it done even a short static fire test on the launch pad?

Am I crazy, but doesn't the FAA need to do a full review all of these brand new procedures and systems before issuing a launch license? Even if 99.9% of everything works properly as designed, the smallest problems can take weeks to fix and then everything needs to get tested again, especially when you consider everything is brand new. The BO team is still at the beginning of it's learning curve trying to resolve any issue.

I watched "The Everyday Astronaut" video shot around June 1st and this rocket that is supposed to fly in October was still not fully assembled. The 1st stage tank wasn't even fully assembled. I can only imagine the testing needed once it is fully assembled. Yes, they are close but that seemed like a mountain of work to get done by October. Maybe they were referring to October of 2026? Just joking, sort of!

I will be pleasantly surprised if BO launches it, in October. I also know after waiting all this time it seems foolish to rush things at the last minute. An explosion on the launch pad, would set them back years. I also kind of think Bezos wants to have NG reach full orbit before Starship does, so he can claim some kind of victory, that the media will of course gobble up.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I agree that rushing a first launch seems imprudent. But, the launch window for the chosen payload is now or 2 years from now. So, there are several reasons for Blue Origin to feel rushed. I don't think that is a good thing.

I hope they succeed, whenever they get the launch off the pad. But, the landing on their drone ship for the first time looks like it has a significant probability for an "FAA mishap" to be declared. It will be interesting to see how tolerant FAA is of New Glenn flight imperfections, given its history with SpaceX launching purely developmental tests with no payloads and anticipation of not meeting all goals, and still getting "mishaps".