Blue Origin inches closer to the first New Glenn flight

Blue Origin has successfully performed a hotfire of its New Glenn rocket, paving the way for the vehicle's first launch in the coming days.

Blue Origin itself is driving the uncertainty around the launch date. Earlier in December, the rocketmaker declared itself "on track" for a first launch before the end of 2024.

The aerospace outfit was issued a commercial space launch license from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on December 27 and, on the same date, performed an integrated vehicle hotfire test on the Launch Complex 36 pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation Kelvin Coleman said, "By working closely with Blue Origin, the FAA issued this new launch license well in advance of the statutory deadline for the historic maiden flight of New Glenn."

The hotfire came at the end of a multi-day proving campaign, which included tanking tests and checking that the vehicle and pad infrastructure worked as expected. It is very much a "do everything except launch" type of test. According to Blue Origin, this is "the final major test prior to launch."

However, the company has remained tightlipped on when the long-awaited launch will happen. Officially, it claimed to be targeting the end of the year, although that seems highly optimistic. Even an advisory giving the primary launch day as January 6, 2025, with a backup a day later, would require everything to have gone swimmingly during the hotfire.

That said, it will be an undeniably impressive sight when the first New Glenn finally leaves the pad. The rocket stands over 320 feet (98 meters) high, shorter than NASA's Saturn V and SpaceX's Starship. Seven BE-4 engines power the first stage, and the second stage uses two BE-3U engines.

United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur is propelled by two BE-4 engines.

Similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9, the vehicle is designed to be partially reusable, with the first stage planned to land on a downrange sea-based platform. According to Blue Origin, a New Glenn first stage will be good for "a minimum of 25 missions."

The first flight, dubbed NG-1, will include a 45,000 lb payload mass simulator and a Blue Ring Pathfinder. The plan had been to launch NASA's ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) earlier this year, but the US space agency blinked and opted to delay the mission. A move that, in retrospect, was a wise one. An awful lot would have to have gone right for Blue Origin to have made a not-earlier-than October 13 launch date.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos posted a video of the 24-second seven-engine hotfire, with the words "Next stop launch" and received congratulations and wishes for good fortune from the likes of SpaceX supremo Elon Musk and US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman. ®