The future of Blue Origin New Glenn The rocket will join NASA’s fleet of commercial launch vehicles for flights in mid-2020, the agency and company announced this week.
The newly signed contract marks another expansion of NASA’s launch of launch vehicles. The Agency is already flying payloads on the Blue Origin suborbital vehicle, The new Shepard, which flew dozens of times. New Glenn, an orbital launcher, is designed to reuse its amplifiers and the company’s founder Jeff Bezos he said he was hoping for the vehicle both the people and the cargo will fly.
“The award builds on Blue Origin’s existing partnership with NASA and will advance science and exploration for the benefit of the Earth,” said Jarrett Jones, senior vice president for New Glenn at Blue Origin. he said in a company statement. “We are proud to be in NASA’s catalog of launch services and look forward to providing reliable launches for future NASA missions aboard New Glenn for years to come.
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The new contract does not commit NASA to launch any special missions on New Glenn. Instead, it opens Blue Origin to compete for NASA contracts under NASA Launch Services II, which applies to launches through December 2027, according to a NASA statement.
These vehicles must be able to carry at least 550 lbs. (250 kilograms), the design of a New Glenn bar is easily erased. Unlike modern heavy commercial vehicles, SpaceX Falcon Heavy and the Launch Union Alliance Delta IV Heavy, New Glenn is based on a single booster, not three.
The New Glenn High Weight Rocket is a two-stage amplifier that is 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) in low orbit. land. Its unique heavy payload fairing (23 feet or 7 feet wide) will allow it to launch a variety of payloads from the Blue Origin pad at the 36th launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida. .
The reusable booster from the first stage of the rocket will reach an ocean platform waiting 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 chronology makes it one of the two heavy commercial missiles that aim to debut in 2021, along with the new United Launch Alliance Vulcan vehicle.
In addition to new orbital opportunities and existing flights on New Shepard, NASA and Blue Origin may have other partnerships in their future. The company designed a Blue Moon robot lander that NASA has accepted as an option for carrying out monthly scientific and technological missions; In addition, Blue Origin leads a coalition that adapts this design as one of the three suitors to land humans on the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
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