Will New Glenn Finally Put Blue Origin In Orbit?
Since being founded in late 2000, Blue Origin has not had the smoothest progression over time. While they have made some impressive feats including New Shepard and sending humans above the Karman line, they are still yet to put a spacecraft in orbit. At this point in time, even CEO Jeff Bezos has stepped down from Amazon to focus his efforts on Blue Origin.
If successful, New Glenn could finally provide Blue Origin with a consistent and powerful launch vehicle. Not only that but with the goal of full reusability, it’s possible the rocket will also provide Blue Origin with competitive prices against different launch providers.
However, with companies such as SpaceX, ULA, and more working on new and improved rockets, New Glenn will have to do everything Blue Origin is saying it will. Once finished, the rocket could help Blue Origin win some competitive contracts and even begin launching Amazon’s project Kuiper.
What Is New Glenn?
New Glenn is Blue Origin’s heavy-lift rocket currently in development. New Glenn is meant to be fully reusable and capable of carrying 50 tons into low Earth orbit. Standing at almost 100m tall and 7m wide, New Glenn will be Blue Origin’s biggest and most ambitious rocket by far. After launch, the booster and second stage are both supposed to land and be reused again for a future mission. Blue Origin is doing this to try and cut down on costs and speed up launches.
The booster after stage separation uses fins to orient itself back towards a specific landing pad. The landing pad will be a large ship out at sea similar to SpaceX’s drone ship. The difference being this landing pad won’t be a drone ship and instead is operated by humans. As for the second stage, we are currently unsure how Blue Origin plans on landing it. New Glenn was not always planned to be fully reusable. Until just recently, New Glenn was only supposed to be partially reusable. Blue Origin made the switch from only reusing the booster to attempting full reusability. It’s likely they made this decision to try and cut down on costs and better compete with other launch providers.
Blue Origin’s History
Blue Origin was founded in late 2000 by Jeff Bezos. Over the last two decades, the company has not had the smoothest possible progression. Despite consistent funding thanks to Jeff Bezos and investors, the company is still yet to put a spacecraft in orbit. In the early 2000s, Blue Origin began working on its New Shepard rocket. This rocket was meant to be a crew-rated suborbital launch vehicle for space tourism. New Shepard is a smaller rocket at 18m tall. The rocket also has a reusable booster that lands vertically after launch.
New Shepard recently made history when it brought CEO Jeff Bezos and some additional passengers above the Karman line and back down. While New Shepard has been a success, Blue Origin has faced a lot of challenges in other areas. An example of this could be problems revolving around commercial contracts. Recently, NASA has been awarding different private space companies with large contracts to help development. Oftentimes these contracts have multiple companies compete and then NASA picks the design best suited for its needs. One of the bigger contracts Blue Origin missed out on was the lunar lander competition.
Blue Origin ended up losing the contract to SpaceX’s Starship. Blue Origin then proceeded to file multiple lawsuits and try to fight NASA’s decision. Nothing came from this and SpaceX received the contract. In other instances, Blue Origin has filed lawsuits when things have not gone their way. Additionally, people often compare Blue Origin to SpaceX and mock the company or CEO for copying the other. These instances along with others have brought a lot of negative attention to the company over time.
New Glenn’s Impact On Blue Origin
Reaching Orbit – Getting into orbit is a very big deal for any space company. The reason for this is the process of successfully launching and getting spacecraft to orbit the planet is extremely difficult. Many companies fail their initial tries including SpaceX who blew up multiple Falcon 1s when trying to get into orbit. If New Glenn can successfully put the second stage into orbit then it would be a massive achievement for Blue Origin and would help them become a possible competitive launch provider.
Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle – The jump from New Shepard to New Glenn is quite significant. New Shepard is tiny when compared to the almost 100m tall New Glenn. Not only is New Glenn meant to be big but also very powerful. Being a heavy-lift launch vehicle it will be capable of bringing a lot of weight into low Earth orbit and beyond. This opens the doors for many opportunities for Blue Origin. Additionally, with the goal of full reusability, New Glenn could be extremely powerful and provide quick and cost-effective launches for the company.
Commercial Deals – One of the main aspects of private space companies that brings in a lot of revenue is commercial deals. There is a massive market of companies and agencies that require a launch provider to put their cargo into orbit. Assuming everything goes well with New Glenn, Blue Origin could consistently launch payloads for different companies and agencies. This would help the private company bring in a lot of additional income and get paid to test and work on their equipment. It also opens the doors for possible NASA contracts in the future. NASA has been trying to work with a lot of different companies and make sure there is competition in the private space industry. If New Glenn is affordable and consistent then it could be a great option for future NASA-related missions.
Project Kuiper – One final positive impact New Glenn could have on Blue Origin is project Kuiper. This ties in with the commercial deals aspect. Project Kuiper is a large satellite array similar to SpaceX’s Starlink. The idea is to provide fast and affordable internet across the world. To create a full array, Amazon and Blue Origin will need to launch thousands of satellites. This could end up being a great opportunity for the company and its future.
Blue Origin’s Ambitious Goal
New Glenn is a very ambitious goal but it could be exactly what Blue Origin needs. Blue Origin has not been the fastest company when compared to others. The motto of the company is Gradatim Ferociter which is Latin for Step by Step Ferociously. Jeff Bezos talked about the meaning and not skipping any steps throughout the company. New Glenn is a massive step up from Blue Origin’s previous experience and rockets. Additionally, the rocket will be using Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine that is currently in development. A lot can go wrong but the payoff could be finally putting Blue Origin in orbit with a quality launch vehicle.
Conclusion
Blue Origin needs a big win in the space industry. Since being founded and especially recently they have missed out on important contracts and faced a lot of backlash. New Glenn could be the turning point for the company. If successful, New Glenn would allow the company to reach orbit, have a fully reusable heavy-lift rocket, get commercial deals, and more. With such an ambitious goal it will be hard for Blue Origin to succeed in making a fully reusable heavy-lift rocket. However, if they do it could help the company become a major competitor in the space industry. We will have to wait and see what Blue Origin is able to achieve.