Blue Origin is aiming to comply with within the footsteps of SpaceX by touchdown the first-stage of its new rocket, the New Glenn.
Touchdown the first-stage booster after deploying the higher stage to orbit permits it for use for a number of flights, which helps to cut back mission prices.
Forward of its first check flight later this yr, Blue Origin shared a brief video exhibiting a check of the touchdown legs that can be hooked up to the New Glenn’s first stage. It reveals how the legs will emerge on the base of the rocket within the last moments earlier than touching down.
“We just lately accomplished New Glenn’s first-stage check of its six touchdown legs — a key space for reusability, which lowers the price of entry to house,” the Jeff Bezos-led spaceflight firm stated in a submit on X (previously Twitter). “The touchdown gear stow contained in the rocket throughout flight, deploying because the booster gently touches down on our touchdown vessel at sea.”
We just lately accomplished New Glenn’s first stage check of its six touchdown legs—a key space for reusability, which lowers the price of entry to house. The touchdown gear stow contained in the rocket throughout flight, deploying because the booster gently touches down on our touchdown vessel at sea. pic.twitter.com/3xUSUPDQyk
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 17, 2024
Blue Origin already lands its New Shepard rocket shortly after lift-off, however bringing the New Glenn dwelling can be a much more advanced operation. That’s as a result of the New Shepard is a single-stage suborbital automobile, whereas the New Glenn is a significantly bigger two-stage machine that can fly far increased than the New Shepard.
Blue Origin’s new rocket, which was raised for the primary time on a Kennedy House Middle launchpad in February, stands at about 320 ft (98 meters) tall. That features a seven-meter payload fairing with twice the quantity of normal five-meter class business launch methods, and which is described by the corporate as “massive sufficient to carry three college buses.”
The New Glenn can be used for as many as 27 missions over the approaching years to deploy Amazon’s Undertaking Kuiper web satellites in an initiative just like SpaceX’s Starlink service. It can additionally deploy satellites for business clients and different organizations, with lunar missions additionally a part of the plan.
Following numerous delays, the New Glenn’s debut launch is predicted to happen no sooner than September 29, 2024, carrying NASA’s EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars.
