Blue Origin has achieved an important milestone with its New Glenn NG-1 rocket, successfully completing a 24-second hotfire of the rocket’s BE-4 engines in preparation for an expected test flight in the coming days.
This was the first time the entire vehicle, including the first and second stages, were tested as a fully integrated system, alongside the ground systems at the launch pad. It gave the engineers a chance to do a dress rehearsal of all the procedures required for launch, and check how well simulation data matches real-world scenarios.
Blue Origin confirmed in a press release that “all seven engines performed nominally, firing for 24 seconds, including at 100% thrust for 13 seconds.” The pressurization systems for the first and second stages also performed nominally.
Although New Glenn has yet to fly, its BE-4 methane engines have already reached orbit.
Twice in 2024 ULA’s Vulcan rocket – the successor to the Atlas V, which had been ULA’s heavy-lift workhorse for two decades – reached orbit using BE-4 engines provided by Blue Origin.
In both instances the engines performed nominally, even demonstrating that they could compensate for eventualities: When one of Vulcan’s solid rocket boosters had an anomaly on the second flight, the main engines extended their burn by 20 seconds to keep the rocket on a nominal trajectory.
New Glenn, which has been in development since 2013, uses BE-4 engines on its first stage as well. The rocket is expected to have its maiden flight imminently, with liftoff tentatively set for late evening on January 5 (EST).
The first stage of the rocket is intended to be reuseable, and Blue Origin has playfully nicknamed the first booster So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance. It will attempt to land aboard a vessel in the Atlantic following launch.
According to Reuters, Blue Origin has received FAA approval for the first flight, and the payload will include equipment related to Blue Ring, a Blue Origin program that will provide maneuverable spacecraft to the US Department of Defence.
Upcoming New Glenn launches are expected to carry payloads for NASA, various telecommunications providers, and will also launch Amazon’s planned Project Kuiper, a mega-constellation competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink.
NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE), a two-pronged Mars mission that was expected to launch in Fall 2024, was postponed to Spring 2025, and will now be carried on New Glenn’s third flight.
The 98-meter tall rocket has a 7-meter diameter and can carry 45,000km to Low Earth Orbit. With the full stack hotfire test complete, the path to New Glenn’s maiden flight is wide open.
“This is a monumental milestone and a glimpse of what’s just around the corner for New Glenn’s first launch,” said Jarrett Jones, Senior Vice President, New Glenn, after the hotfire test. “Today’s success proves that our rigorous approach to testing–combined with our incredible tooling and design engineering–is working as intended.”