Blue Origin announced it would be delaying its inaugural New Glenn launch to Monday morning due to recovery weather. The launch window will remain the same at 1:00 A.M. ET and last until 4:00 A.M. ET.
Blue Origin posted on X that it would be delaying the mission once more to January 13 at 1:00 A.M. ET. This was due to poor weather in the Atlantic Ocean, where the company was planning to land the New Glenn’s booster.
This shows just how important reusability is to Blue Origin and the future of New Glenn. While other companies have tiptoed into reusable rockets, or plan to convert their rockets in the future, Blue Origin is hoping to hit the ground running with recovering its first booster. This will be a tall order and will only be able to succeed if the mission is 100% successful.
Typically, first launches for new rockets have a lower expectation of success. This is due to so many components operating in a state they have never operated in before. While you can simulate the structural support of a rocket during flight, nothing is like actually launching the rocket to see what survives and what does not.
This has been SpaceX’s mindset with Starship, just to the extreme. SpaceX is what is called “hardware-rich,” which means you have the ability to destroy a rocket during testing and have another right behind it to improve upon.
While Blue Origin isn’t exactly doing the same thing and slightly needs the mission to succeed for Space Force certification, it is willing to accept failure on the landing.
Launching on the first New Glenn rocket will be the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a testbed for potential Blue Origin-made satellite buses, spacecraft, or commercial space stations.
This will be an important mission for Blue Origin as it will be a defining moment for the company’s 2025 goals. If the rocket performs well, then the company will be able to move forward with its goals of launching two lunar lander pathfinder missions, a pair of satellites for NASA to Mars, and its first batch of Amazon Kuiper satellites.
If the mission does not go well, lengthy delays could push NASA’s ESCAPADE another year and delay progress on Blue Moon, the company’s lunar lander for Artemis.
Whatever happens when New Glenn launches, it will be a good step forward in securing a potential competitor to SpaceX for national security and commercial contracts outside of ULA.
