Blue Origin’s powerful new orbital rocket has lifted off the launch pad to prepare for a debut flight that could happen soon.
New Glenn was stacked at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, next to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Blue Origin has not announced an official launch date for the big new rocket, but media reports suggest it could happen in late 2024.
“Got vertical,” Blue Origin officials wrote Thursday (Nov. 21) on X, formerly Twitter, with a photo of the rocket. The company’s suborbital system, New Shepard, coincidentally made its final flight just hours later on Friday morning (Nov. 22) with six people on board, including the 100th woman to fly to space.
Related: Blue Origin stacks up massive New Glenn rocket ahead of first launch (photo)
The New Glenn launch is scheduled to take one of the company’s new Blue Ring spacecraft on a National Security Space Launch certification flight called DarkSky-1. The U.S. Defense Innovation Unit is sponsoring the effort.
New Glenn comes in two- or three-stage variants with a fully reusable first stage booster. The two-stage version is 82 meters high, while the three-stage variant is 95 meters high. By comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is between 63.7 meters and 70 meters tall, depending on the payload.
Blue Ring, the spacecraft platform, is designed as a service module to which other spacecraft or instruments can be attached. The platform is designed to remain on the rocket or be deployed depending on the needs of the mission. Blue Origin officials recently wrote in a company statement that Blue Ring can “easily maneuver through multiple lanes.”
New Glenn was expected to make its first flight in October 2024 with NASA’s twin ESCAPADE Mars probes on board, but the space agency halted the launch amid concerns about cost overruns associated with the new and therefore somewhat developmental rocket line.