Blue Origin‘s inaugural New Glenn mission is lastly able to launch, with the (theoretically) reusable rocket set to embark on its maiden flight from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Area Power Station inside hours. Although the launch had been delayed by a number of days attributable to unfavourable climate, it appears situations are proper to seek out out what New Glenn can do finally.
New Glenn is Blue Origin’s first orbital rocket, and has been in improvement for over a decade. The corporate’s earlier spacecrafts such because the New Shepard have caught nearer the Kármán line, a boundary about 62 miles (100km) above Earth which some have adopted as the start of area. In distinction, New Glenn will intention to blast previous that barrier, reaching a most altitude of roughly 12,000 miles (19,300km).
As such, New Glenn is considerably bigger than New Shepard, standing over 320 toes (98m) tall in comparison with the latter’s 63 toes (19m).
Mashable Mild Pace
Credit score: Blue Origin
New Glenn will not be carrying any human passengers on its maiden voyage. As an alternative, the New Glenn-1 mission’s aim is to see if it could possibly really attain orbit safely, in addition to take a look at out know-how for Blue Origin’s proposed Blue Ring spacecraft platform. It additionally goals to start the certification course of to allow New Glenn to hold army payloads to area. This could allow Blue Origin to enter army contracts with the U.S. Division of Protection, offering some extra competitors for Area X.
In fact, Blue Origin is hoping to land New Glenn’s booster intact as properly, with a touchdown pad at the moment on the prepared within the Atlantic Ocean.
The mission’s three-hour launch window will open Monday at 1 a.m. EST / Sunday 10 p.m. PST, with the webcast reside now. Watch Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch on Blue Orgin’s YouTube channel right here:
