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Blue Origin scrubs first launch of giant New Glenn rocket
Blue Origin scrubs first launch of giant New Glenn rocket
By Gregg Newtown with Issam Ahmed in Washington
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Jan 13, 2025

Blue Origin's highly anticipated launch attempt for its New Glenn rocket, scheduled for today, has been scrubbed. The decision to postpone the maiden orbital flight comes as the company prioritizes safety and thorough analysis before proceeding. "Pointy end up!" CEO Dave Limp had posted on X earlier, underscoring the excitement surrounding the launch of the 320-foot-tall rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

This mission, dubbed NG-1, was set to mark Blue Origin's entry into the orbital space race, directly challenging SpaceX's dominance in the commercial launch market. With plans to deploy the Defense Department's Blue Ring prototype spacecraft and attempt a first-stage booster landing on the drone ship Jacklyn, the mission encapsulates Blue Origin's ambitions to cement its place as a major player in space exploration. A new launch date has not yet been announced.

Pre Launch Report

A quarter century after its founding, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is finally ready for its maiden orbital voyage with a brand new rocket the company hopes will shake up the commercial space race.

Named New Glenn after legendary astron1aut John Glenn, it stands 320 feet (98 meters) tall, roughly equivalent to a 32-story building, and is set to blast off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in a launch window that opens at 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Monday.

"Pointy end up!" the company's CEO, Dave Limp posted on X alongside photos of the gleaming white behemoth.

With the mission, dubbed NG-1, billionaire Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, vital for the commercial sector, the Pentagon and NASA.

"SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town, and so having a competitor... this is great," G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, told AFP.

SpaceX, meanwhile, is planning the next orbital test of Starship -- its gargantuan new-generation rocket -- this week, upping the high-stakes rivalry.

- Landing attempt -

Soon after launch, Blue Origin will attempt to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship named Jacklyn, in honor of Bezos's mother, stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.

Though SpaceX has long made such landings a near-routine spectacle, this will be Blue Origin's first shot at a touchdown on the high seas.

Meanwhile, the rocket's upper stage will fire its engines toward Earth orbit, reaching a maximum altitude of roughly 12,000 miles above the surface.

A Defense Department-funded prototype spaceship called Blue Ring will remain aboard for the roughly six-hour test flight.

Blue Origin has experience landing its New Shepard rockets -- used for suborbital tourism -- but they are much smaller and land on terra firma rather than a ship at sea.

Physically, New Glenn dwarfs the 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed for heavier payloads.

It slots between Falcon 9 and its big sibling, Falcon Heavy, in terms of mass capacity but holds an edge with its wider payload fairing, capable of carrying the equivalent of 20 moving trucks.

- Slow v fast development -

Blue Origin has already secured a NASA contract to launch two Mars probes aboard New Glenn. The rocket will also support the deployment of Project Kuiper, a satellite internet constellation designed to compete with Starlink.

For now, however, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, while other rivals -- United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Rocket Lab -- trail far behind.

Like Musk, Bezos has a lifelong passion for space. But whereas Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy industry off-planet onto floating space platforms in order to preserve Earth, "humanity's blue origin."

He founded Blue Origin in 2000 -- two years before Musk created SpaceX -- but has adopted a more cautious pace, in contrast to his rival's "fail fast, learn fast" philosophy.

If New Glenn succeeds, it will give the US government "dissimilar redundancy" -- valuable backup if one system fails, said Scott Pace, a space policy analyst at George Washington University.

Musk's closeness to President-elect Donald Trump has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, especially with private astronaut Jared Isaacman -- a business associate of Musk -- slated to become the next NASA chief.

Bezos, however, has been making his own overtures, paying respect to his former foe during a visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, while Amazon has said it would donate $1 million to the inauguration committee.

NASA Lander Will Demonstrate Vacuum-Based Lunar Sample Collection
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 10, 2025 - NASA is preparing to showcase a cutting-edge sample collection method on the Moon as part of its ongoing efforts to revolutionize planetary exploration. The Lunar PlanetVac (LPV), a key technology demonstration payload, will be carried to the lunar surface aboard Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lander. This mission falls under the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, aimed at advancing commercial lunar delivery capabilities.

Developed by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company based in Altadena, California, LPV employs a pneumatic, compressed gas-powered system to collect and transfer lunar soil efficiently. Functioning like a self-contained vacuum, LPV can gather and deliver soil samples to scientific instruments or return containers without relying on gravity. The system uses pressurized gas to agitate the lunar regolith, creating a dust cloud that is funneled into a transfer tube by secondary pneumatic jets and captured in a sample container. This fully autonomous process takes only seconds, adhering to planetary protection protocols.

LPV is designed to handle particles up to 1 cm (0.4 inches) in size, which are then sieved and photographed in real time. The data is transmitted to Earth immediately, allowing researchers to analyze the samples without delay. "There's no digging, no mechanical arm to wear out requiring servicing or replacement - it functions like a vacuum cleaner," said Dennis Harris, LPV payload manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He highlighted the potential of this technology to aid in resource identification, such as water and helium, and to support the development of lunar habitats and launch pads.

In addition to LPV, the Firefly's Blue Ghost 1 mission will carry nine other payloads, many of which are managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. These projects underline NASA's commitment to fostering commercial partnerships and enabling long-term lunar exploration.

NASA's Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) is another notable payload aboard the Blue Ghost lander. Developed by Montana State University, RadPC aims to address the challenges posed by space radiation, which can disrupt onboard systems. Using redundant processors on field-programmable gate arrays, RadPC can detect, isolate, and repair faults caused by radiation strikes, ensuring reliable operation. The system also features three dosimeters to monitor radiation levels throughout the mission, contributing valuable data for future Artemis missions and Moon-to-Mars exploration.

"RadPC's CLPS payload is an exciting opportunity to verify a radiation-tolerant computer option that could make future Moon to Mars missions safer and more cost-effective," Harris said. The technology will also provide radiation measurements at the lunar landing site in Mare Crisium, helping safeguard astronauts and equipment in future missions.

Additionally, NASA's Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) will debut on the lunar surface as part of the mission. Designed at Kennedy Space Center, EDS uses electrical forces to remove abrasive lunar dust from surfaces, addressing a significant hazard for spacecraft and astronauts. The technology can clean solar panels, thermal radiators, and even spacesuits, ensuring operational efficiency in dusty environments. "Lunar regolith dust is sharp, abrasive, and highly electrostatically charged, posing numerous challenges," explained Dr. Charles Buhler, lead scientist at Kennedy's Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory. EDS offers a promising solution to these challenges, furthering NASA's Artemis campaign.

These innovative payloads illustrate NASA's strategic investment in commercial partnerships and advanced technologies to achieve sustainable lunar exploration. As the primary customer for CLPS deliveries, NASA aims to share flights with other customers in the future, fostering industry growth and expanding humanity's presence in space.

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