Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket “Has A Chance”

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Up until now it is Elon Musk's SpaceX that has added snappy names to its floating landing vessels. Musk's fleet is named ⁘Just Read the Instructions', ⁘A Shortfall of Gravitas' and ⁘Of Course I Still Love You'. Now The Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin rocket business is getting into the act.

For example, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is playfully called ⁘So you're telling me there's a chance'.

Dave Limp, Blue Origin's CEO, explains that the company had what he called a "cool history" of naming key hardware. "We're calling New Glenn's first booster ⁘So You're Telling Me There's a Chance'. Why? No one has landed a reusable booster on the first try. Yet, we're going for it, and humbly submit having good confidence in landing it. But like I said a couple of weeks ago, if we don't, we'll learn and keep trying until we do."

Limp was talking to CNBC's Michael Sheetz, and referring to Blue Origin's powerful BE-4 rocket engine already successfully used on October 4th by the United Launch Alliance on its giant Vulcan Centaur rockets.

But much depends on successful integration of seven of these engines into the New Glenn reusable rocket and then a flawless debut flight for the vehicle which will eventually carry Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband satellites.

New Glenn had a successful first ground test back on September 23rd, and another on September 24th.

The timing of these pre-launch tests is crucial especially given the multitude of delays on the rocket. Development of the New Glenn rocket started before 2013 and was formally announced in 2016, with an inaugural flight planned for 2020. After numerous delays, as of September 2024, the first launch is expected to take place no earlier than November 2024, carrying a prototype Blue Ring spacecraft.

Then, and assuming all goes well, the heavy lift New Glenn rocket will start carrying numerous Kuiper satellites on each flight. Back in April 2022 Amazon ordered 27 New Glenn rockets to help with the Kuiper 3236 mission. Each flight is capable of lifting 45 metric tonnes of cargo to Low Earth orbit.

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