Tag: Blue Origin
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Launch Roundup: Soyuz flies; New Shepard simulates lunar gravity
This week’s launch manifest is quite diverse, featuring the launches of four different rockets worldwide. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket has simulated the Moon’s gravity from just beyond the Kármán line, and Rocket Lab launched Electron for the first time this year from New Zealand. Russia launched Soyuz for the first time in 2025…
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With successful New Glenn flight, Blue Origin may finally be turning the corner
If one were to observe that I have written critically about Blue Origin over the last half-decade, they would not be wrong. The reality is that the space company founded by Jeff Bezos has underperformed. Its chief executive for most of this time, Bob Smith, was poorly regarded by his employees. He brought the worst…
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Blue Origin reaches orbit on first flight of its titanic New Glenn rocket
Early on Thursday morning, a Saturn V-sized rocket ignited its seven main engines, a prelude to lifting off from Earth. But then, the New Glenn rocket didn’t move. And still, the engines produced their blue flame, furiously burning away methane. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the rocket must have been in the vicinity of 1.0 to…
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Blue Origin launches New Glenn rocket to orbit for the first time, marking a milestone for Jeff Bezos
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket rises up from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a pillar of bluish flame. (Photo Courtesy of Trevor Mahlmann) For the first time ever, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has put a payload in orbit, using its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. The two-stage…
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Blue Origin launches New Glenn on flight NG-1 and makes orbit
After years of development, Blue Origin’s semi-reusable heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, successfully launched on Thursday, Jan. 16 at 2:03 AM EST (07:03 UTC) after moving from the start of the window due to engine chill issues and a boat that violated the range. The Jan. 13 scrub was caused by ice forming on…
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New Glenn to make another launch attempt early Thursday
Blue Origin announced late on Monday afternoon that it planned to make a second attempt to launch the New Glenn rocket at 1 am ET (06:00 UTC) on Tuesday. But then, a couple of hours later, the company said it would move the launch to Thursday. Although the company provided no information about why it…
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Blue Origin reschedules orbital debut of New Glenn rocket, then re-reschedules it
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket stands on its Florida launch pad. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) Over the course of just a few hours today, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture made two adjustments to the schedule for launching its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket to orbit for the first time. At first, Blue Origin said…
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Launch Roundup: New Glenn and Starship headline a week dominated by SpaceX missions
SpaceX dominated this week’s launch manifest with two Falcon 9 missions and the seventh flight of its Starship rocket. The two Falcon 9 missions will see the launches of a Transporter rideshare mission, and two Moon landers. Blue Origin’s New Glenn achieved orbit on Thursday morning following the scrub of its maiden flight attempt on…
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Technical snag forces another delay for the first orbital launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket stands on its Florida launch pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture counted down to the final hour tonight, but in the end, the company had to postpone the first-ever orbital launch of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket due to a stubborn technical glitch. The launch…
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An icy vent line may have caused Blue Origin to scrub debut launch of New Glenn
COCOA BEACH, Fla.—With 45 minutes left in a three-hour launch window, Blue Origin scrubbed its first attempt to launch the massive New Glenn rocket early on Monday morning. Throughout the window, which opened at 1 am ET (06:00 UTC), the company continued to reset the countdown clock as launch engineers worked out technical issues with…