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Postponement of the first launch of Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket
The maiden flight of the giant New Glenn rocket from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company will have to wait a little longer: his company Blue Origin canceled the launch due to unspecified technical problems. Blue Origin was scheduled to launch for the first time Monday its large New Glenn rocket, an inaugural flight that looks like a turning point for the company founded by the American billionaire, and potentially the private space industry. “We are abandoning the launch attempt to resolve a vehicle subsystem problem which would lead us beyond our window of firing,” said Ariane Cornell, a Blue Origin executive, during a live broadcast attended by hundreds of thousands of spectators. This rocket, which took years to design and whose launch has already been postponed for multiple times, measures 98 meters, the size of a building of around 30 floors. The objective is clear: “Reach orbit. Anything beyond is a bonus”, boasted David Limp, the CEO from Blue Origin.If the company of the founder of Amazon has already been taking tourists for a few minutes into space for years thanks to its smallest New Shepard rocket, it has so far not carried out any flight into orbit. With New Glenn, Blue Origin aims to catch up with its great rival SpaceX, which belongs to another American billionaire, Elon Musk. Elon Musk had also wished “good luck” to Blue Origin on the social network space commercial with its Falcon 9 rockets and Falcon Heavy, and is now developing the largest rocket ever created: Starship. Coincidence or not with the calendar, SpaceX intends to conduct the seventh test flight of its mega-rocket later this week. – “Having a choice” -With New Glenn, which is a “heavy launcher”, Blue Origin would like to compete with SpaceX on its field: the launch of commercial and military satellites into orbit, but also ships and astronauts. Its rocket must be able to carry up to 45 tonnes in low orbit. This is more than double that of Falcon 9, but less than Falcon Heavy (63.8 tonnes). “It’s a good thing to have competition, to have the choice”, insists George Nield, president of a company promoting private space activities.”It’s very important for the commercial space industry, but also for the government and NASA” because it not only lowers costs, but also offers a plan B “in case of a problem with a device,” he says.Blue Origin has already signed contracts with several clients, including the American space agency for an unmanned mission to Mars, and the American government for national security missions. On the commercial side, it plans to deploy internet satellites for several companies. It should also, like SpaceX with Starlink, be responsible for launching satellites from the Amazon group. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the two richest men in the world, are also fighting in the field of satellite internet. – “Much lower prices” -The similarities between the two private space giants do not stop not there. Like the Falcon 9, New Glenn is designed to be partly reusable. During this inaugural mission, which was to last around six hours, Blue Origin intended to attempt to recover the first stage of its rocket. The company has already managed to land its New Shepard rocket in Texas. But this time, it intended to attempt a controlled landing on a barge at sea, a maneuver similar to that achieved by SpaceX with its Falcon 9 rocket. “An extremely complicated process,” according to Elliott Bryner, professor at Embry Aeronautical University. -Riddle.But while the race for the privatization and militarization of space is in full swing, this process which allows “reusing large parts of rockets” is crucial because it allows both “to offer access to space at a much lower price” and to accelerate the pace of launches, he points out to AFP.cha/bpe/vgu/asm/clr
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