Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket: Launching Soon from Merritt Island Manufacturing Campus
Blue Origin’s highly anticipated New Glenn rocket is set to launch this year from its massive manufacturing campus on Merritt Island. The aerospace company has been quietly working on the project for years, and now it is ready to make its debut in the space industry. With a height of over 320 feet, New Glenn will be one of the largest vehicles ever built.
The manufacturing campus on Merritt Island is a sprawling facility that is dedicated to building and launching the New Glenn rocket. Blue Origin has invested over $1 billion in constructing state-of-the-art facilities, including vertical tank cleaning and test facilities, a precision cleaning facility, and a surface coating facility. The company also has a warehouse on the south campus to store hardware.
Lars Hoffman, Blue Origin’s vice president for national security sales, spoke about the company’s plans during a SpaceCom presentation. He revealed that the company is not only preparing for the first launch this year but also ramping up production to support multiple launches per year. Blue Origin aims to cater to a wide range of customers, including commercial, civil, and national security sectors.
While Blue Origin and SpaceX were both founded by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk respectively, they have taken different approaches to developing orbital rockets. Laura Forczyk, founder and executive director of Astralytical, a space consulting firm, believes that Blue Origin is not a direct competitor to SpaceX in the short term. She points out that Blue Origin has focused its efforts on lunar development and secured a $3.4 billion contract with NASA for the Artemis V mission.
Forczyk also mentioned that the long-term competition between Blue Origin’s New Glenn, ULA’s Vulcan, and SpaceX’s Starship remains uncertain. However, she acknowledged the value of manufacturing launch vehicles close to the launch site for logistical efficiency.
Blue Origin’s launch site for New Glenn is located at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company has invested in rebuilding the launch complex, which is now fully tested and ready for liftoff. After launch, the first-stage boosters of New Glenn will land on ships in the ocean and return to LC-36 for inspections, maintenance, and servicing.
The New Glenn rocket has already garnered interest from various satellite operators, including Eutelsat, JSAT, and Telesat. Blue Origin spokesperson Sara Blask confirmed that the company is currently producing four New Glenn boosters and 11 fairings. The rocket’s design focuses on reusability, with the first stage designed for a minimum of 25 missions. It has the capacity to carry 45 metric tons to low-Earth orbit and 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit.
Looking ahead, experts are optimistic about the success of New Glenn. The recent performance of Blue Origin’s BE-4 liquefied natural gas engines on ULA’s Vulcan rocket has given hope that New Glenn will also succeed when it finally launches.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is set to make a significant impact in the space industry. With its impressive size, reusability, and focus on lunar development, it has the potential to become a major player alongside SpaceX and ULA. As the launch date approaches, all eyes will be on Merritt Island as Blue Origin prepares to send its first New Glenn rocket into space.