New Glenn: How To Watch Blue Origin’s Next Big Rocket Launch

Blue Origin is preparing for 1 of its biggest launches yet. On Sunday, nan Jeff Bezos-owned commercialized abstraction institution will effort to nonstop its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket into abstraction for nan first time.

The motorboat comes aft almost a decade of development, and its consequence could frighten nan powerfulness of Elon Musk’s SpaceX — not only successful nan commercialized abstraction manufacture but too successful nan outer nett business. Here’s an overview of what you petition to cognize astir nan New Glenn statement and really to watch it live.

What is New Glenn, and why is it important?

First announced successful 2016, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is meant to shuttle cargo, satellites, and, successful nan future, group into space. The New Glenn is named aft John Glenn, nan first NASA astronaut to participate nan Earth’s orbit.

Its first style is powered by 7 of Blue Origin’s powerful BE-4 engines, which tally connected liquified earthy authorities and liquid oxygen. Blue Origin intends to reuse New Glenn’s first style for astatine slightest 25 missions, arsenic it’s designed to touch down vertically connected a sea-based level pursuing launch, allowing nan institution to retrieve it.

The rocket’s precocious style is disposable and carries Blue Origin’s payload. It’s tin of sending 13 metric tons to geostationary proscription orbit and 45 metric tons to debased Earth orbit. Blue Origin says New Glenn is too “engineered pinch nan accusation and redundance required to alert humans.” Though Blue Origin initially aimed to motorboat New Glenn successful 2020, its inaugural statement kept getting pushed backmost owed to issues pinch nan improvement of its BE-4 motor and different method mishaps.

As pointed retired by NPR, New Glenn has a akin carrying capacity to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, but it stands retired pinch a larger, 23-foot-wide cargo bay. If New Glenn’s motorboat is successful, it could powerfulness up its rivalry pinch SpaceX arsenic immoderate companies vie to unafraid lucrative authorities contracts.

New Glenn is too cardinal to Amazon’s Project Kuiper outer nett initiative. Though nan company’s first group of satellites is scheduled to motorboat aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket this year, Blue Origin will yet motorboat Project Kuiper satellites aboard New Glenn, rivaling SpaceX’s Starlink. Amazon plans to nonstop 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites into space, which is still acold little than Starlink’s expanding constellation of overmuch than 6,000 satellites.

What to expect from New Glenn’s first launch

New Glenn is group to return disconnected from Cape Canaveral, Florida, pinch a three-hour motorboat exemplary opening connected January 12th astatine 1AM ET (10PM PT). The motorboat was primitively scheduled for January 10th, but it was pushed backmost owed to “a precocious oversea authorities successful nan Atlantic.”

During this uncrewed launch, New Glenn will personification nan Blue Ring Pathfinder connected board, a payload consisting of a communications array, a powerfulness system, and a statement computer. It will proceedings nan company’s Blue Ring spacecraft, which will thief support missions pinch refueling, hosting, accusation relay, and unreality computing capabilities. The extremity is for New Glenn to scope orbit, while “anything beyond that,” for illustration landing its reusable booster is simply a “bonus,” according to Blue Origin CEO David Limp.

“This is our first statement and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” Jarrett Jones, nan elder vice president of New Glenn, said successful a statement. “But nary magnitude of crushed testing aliases ngo simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s clip to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and usage that knowledge to our adjacent launch.”

How to watch New Glenn’s motorboat live

Blue Origin will apt watercourse nan motorboat unrecorded from its website and YouTube channel. We’ll embed nan watercourse beneath erstwhile it becomes available.