[ad_1]
The future of Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket will join NASA’s fleet of commercial launchers for flights in the mid-2020s, the agency and the company announced this week.
The newly signed contract marks a further extension of the NASA launch team. The agency is already flying payloads on Blue Origin’s suborbital vehicle, New Shepard, which has flown a dozen times. New Glenn, an orbital launcher, is designed to reuse its boosters, and company founder Jeff Bezos said he hopes for the vehicle will steal humans as well as goods.
“The award builds on the existing partnership between Blue Origin and NASA and will advance science and exploration for the benefit of Earth,” Jarrett Jones, senior vice president of New Glenn at Blue Origin, said in a company press release. “We are proud to be included in the NASA Launch Services Catalog and look forward to providing reliable launches for future NASA missions aboard the New Glenn for years to come.”
Related: Blue Origin’s Lunar Lander: A Photo Tour
The new contract does not commit NASA to launch a particular mission on New Glenn. Instead, it opens Blue Origin to compete for NASA contracts under NASA Launch Services II, which is applicable for launches through December 2027, according to a NASA statement.
These vehicles must be able to carry at least 550 pounds. (250 kilograms), a bar New Glenn’s design comes off easily. Unlike modern heavy-duty vehicles, SpaceX Heavy falcon and United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV heavy, the New Glenn is based on a booster, not three.
The New Glenn heavy-lift rocket is a two-stage thruster that measures 313 feet (95 meters) high and has a lifting capacity of up to 14 tons (13 metric tons) in geostationary orbit and 50 tons (45 metric tons ) at Low Earth Orbit. Its particularly large payload fairing (which measures 23 feet wide, or 7 meters) will allow it to launch a variety of payloads from the Blue Origin platform at Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida.
The reusable rocket first stage thruster will land on a waiting ocean platform after launch. It is designed to fly up to 25 times, Blue Origin said. According to Blue Origin, New Glenn will make its first flight next year. This timeline makes it one of two commercial heavy rockets set to debut in 2021, along with the new United Launch Alliance rocket. Vulcan vehicle.
In addition to new orbital opportunities and existing New Shepard flights, NASA and Blue Origin may have other partnerships in the future. The company has designed a robotic blue moon lander that NASA has accepted as an option for carrying out lunar science and technology missions; Furthermore, Blue Origin is leading a coalition that adapts this design by one of the three suitors to land humans on the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link