Second New Glenn launch slips towards fall as program management departs
A couple of weeks in the past, the chief government of Blue Origin, Dave Limp, convened an all-hands assembly for the greater than 12,000 workers on the firm. Among the many most important gadgets he mentioned was the launch price for the New Glenn rocket and the way the corporate would fall considerably in need of its aim for this 12 months.
Earlier than 2025 started, Limp had set expectations alongside Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos: New Glenn would launch eight occasions this 12 months.
Nevertheless, because the rocket’s largely profitable debut in January, 5 months have handed. At one level the corporate focused “late spring” for the second launch of the rocket. Nevertheless, on Monday, Limp acknowledged on social media that the rocket’s subsequent flight will now now not happen till at the very least August 15. Though he didn’t say so, this could be the one different New Glenn launch this 12 months.
The mission, with an undesignated payload, will probably be named “By no means Inform Me the Odds,” because of the try and land the booster.
“One among our key mission goals will probably be to land and get well the booster,” Limp wrote. “This can take a bit of little bit of luck and loads of glorious execution. We’re on monitor to provide eight GS2s this 12 months, and the one we’ll fly on this second mission was hot-fired in April.”
A key departure
On this remark, GS2 stands for “Glenn stage 2,” or the second stage of the big rocket. It’s telling that Limp commented on the corporate monitoring towards producing eight second phases, which might match the unique launch cadence deliberate for this 12 months. This doubtless is a fig leaf supplied to Bezos, who, two sources stated, was slightly upset that Blue Origin wouldn’t meet (and even strategy) its authentic goal of eight launches this 12 months.
One particular person acquainted with the progress on the car advised Ars that even a launch date in August is unrealistic—this too might have been set aggressively to appease Bezos—and that September might be the earliest the rocket is more likely to be prepared for launch. Blue Origin has not publicly acknowledged what the payload will probably be, however this second flight is anticipated to hold the ESCAPADE mission for NASA.
