New Glenn static fires for the first time
New Glenn static fires for the first time!
New Glenn, Blue Origin’s heavy-lift launch vehicle, has lit its 7 BE-4 engines during a nominal 24-second static fire! This great milestone comes just hours after the vehicle has received the FAA launch license for its first launch attempt, scheduled for January 6th, at 1am EDT.
What is New Glenn?
New Glenn is a heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin, and it might be just days away from launching! This launch vehicle is 98 meters tall (for reference, it’s as tall as SLS), and 7 meters wide, and supposedly capable of carrying up to 45 tons to Low Earth Orbit, which is no small feat. Many things make this rocket special, aside from its dimensions: first of all, it uses different propellants for the different stages, using LNG(Liquified Natural Gas) / LOX for the first stage and LH2/LOX for the second stage, which is powered by 2 BE-3U engines. But what makes this rocket truly groundbreaking is that it’s partially reusable! This means that the first stage will land on a droneship after separation, possibly making Blue Origin the second company (after SpaceX) to land an orbital class rocket. These are just the basic things to know about New Glenn… if you want to learn more about it, read our dedicated articles here and here!
New Glenn on the launch pad. Credit: Blue Origin
Static fire
On November 22nd, Blue Origin rolled out its integrated New Glenn to LC-36 at Cape Canaveral, for the first time. There, it was raised vertically on the pad, ahead of its integrated test campaign: as we’ve already said, Blue Origin uses different propellants for the different stages, so a lot of tanking tests were made, likely to test both the rocket and the ground systems. Blue Origin also conducted Wet Dress Rehearsals, or WDRs, where all of the launch operations are tested, minus the launch. Finally, they started doing what were believed to be static fire attempts, many of which ended in aborts: just on the static fire day alone, 3 attempts were aborted, including one where the water deluge had already been activated. But in the end, Blue Origin decided to proceed with a 4th attempt, which ended in success! At 19:46:43 EDT, New Glenn lit up all its 7 engines for the first time, during a static fire that lasted 24 seconds, 13 of which were conducted with the engines at 100% throttle. This test was confirmed to be a success, validating the launch pad, ground infrastructure, and rocket for launch. Another important operation that was tested was GS1’s autogenous pressurization system: this means that the first stage doesn’t need an inert gas, such as helium, to pressurize its tanks (like GS2 does), but takes a small amount of its own propellant and uses it in a gaseous form. This technique is also used on Starship, and is useful for saving mass and maximizing performance and payload.
New Glenn during static fire. Credit: Dave Limp
When will it launch?
Even if Blue Origin wanted to launch New Glenn before the end of 2024, they won’t be able to; however, they won’t be far from that: the FAA has given a launch license for the first launch of New Glenn, which is scheduled for January 6th, 2025, during a launch window between 1am and 04:45am EDT, or on following days with the same launch window. Blue Origin will now need to lower its launch vehicle and roll it back to the factory where it will receive its first payload, a Blue Ring pathfinder. Then, they will roll New Glenn back to the launch pad, and attempt the launch, hopefully on January 6th, 2025. This is one of the most important launches of the coming year, so I highly suggest you watch it! To follow the latest updates, watch NSF’s SpaceCoast Live, and check the official Blue Origin website for coverage.
References
Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Completes Integrated Launch Vehicle Hotfire
