Blue Origin's future New Glenn rocket will soon join NASA's commercial launcher fleet to operate flights from the mid-2021s. Eventually, this launcher could also send humans into space.
Blue Origin is an American company created in 2000 by Jeff Bezos (Amazon). The company, concretely, presents itself today as the main competitor of SpaceX. And just like SpaceX, Blue Origin also offers its services to NASA, releasing payloads into space thanks to its suborbital vehicle called New Shepard.
For several years Blue Origin has also been developing another vehicle:a 95-meter high rocket called New Glenn , said to offer a lifting capacity of up to 14 tons in geostationary orbit and up to 50 tons in low Earth orbit. This launcher is also designed to significantly lower launch costs. With this in mind, Blue Origin plans to reuse the first stages of these launchers, as SpaceX does.
For now, the company aims to develop only two models of these first stages, but each will be capable of flying up to 25 times , according to Jeff Bezos. The first flight of this rocket is scheduled for 2021.
That being said, once operational, this rocket will join NASA's commercial launch vehicle fleet , for flights scheduled as early as the mid-2021s, the agency and company announced this week.
“This contract builds on the existing partnership between Blue Origin and NASA and will advance science and exploration for the benefit of the Earth “said Jarrett Jones, senior vice president of New Glenn. “We are proud to be listed in the NASA Launch Services Catalog “.
Note that this agreement does not necessarily oblige NASA to use this New Glenn rocket for its future launches. On the other hand, it will allow Blue Origin to be able to compete for future contracts within the framework of NASA Launch Services II, which runs until December 2027. For these launches, the New Glenn rocket will be in competition with the launcher SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy.
In addition to new orbital opportunities and rocket flights Existing New Shepard, NASA and Blue Origin may also enter into other partnerships in the future. The company has notably developed a lander (Blue Moon) aimed at depositing up to 3.6 tons of payload on the surface of the Moon.
In addition, Blue Origin is also developing an "upgraded" version of this lander with the goal of being able to drop humans in place. This project could also be selected by NASA as part of its return to the Moon in 2024.
