Write a comment
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, has delayed the first launch of its big New Glenn rocket until late 2022 because, the company said, it failed to win large government contracts recently.
The company had planned to launch by this year, but lost billions of dollars in U.S. Space Force business to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance in an August decision by the governme Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, has delayed the first launch of its big New Glenn rocket until late 2022 because, the company said, it failed to win large government contracts recently.
The company had planned to launch by this year, but lost billions of dollars in U.S. Space Force business to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance in an August decision by the government.
"This updated maiden flight target follows the recent Space Force decision to not select New Glenn" for national security government launches, Blue Origin said in a press release Thursday.
"The Blue Origin team has been in contact with all of our customers to ensure this baseline meets their launch needs," the company said.
Such customers as announced in the past have included communications satellite companies such as London-based OneWeb and Ottawa-based Telesat.
Blue Origin has invested $2.5 billion in facilities near Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it develops the rocket, and in Huntsville, Ala., where the engines are made. Those engines also will be used by United Launch Alliance for its new Vulcan rocket.
The August competition win for ULA and Elon Musk's SpaceX meant those two companies will will launch about three dozen national security missions from 2022 to 2026 -- at a price of about $1 billion per year.
New Glenn is under development to take people or payloads into orbit, and Blue Origin has plans for it to carry the company's Blue Moon lunar lander to the moon.
Blue Origin said it has built a New Glenn first-stage mockup or model, a structural test facility and tanks, stage modules and composite fairings.
Northrop Grumman, which also lost out in the August launch contract decision, has since canceled its program for a heavy-lift rocket, the OmegA.
Related Links
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
|
| Tweet |
| Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution. | ||
| SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly |  | SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once credit card or paypal |
NASA delays new test-firing of moon rocket
Orlando FL (UPI) Feb 23, 2021
NASA has delayed the test-firing of its SLS moon rocket that had been planned for Thursday to check out a faulty valve in the liquid propulsion system. When it happens, the test will ignite four powerful engines on the 212-foot-tall core stage of the Space Launch System rocket for four to eight minutes at the John C. Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. NASA is preparing the rocket for an uncrewed test flight around the moon, possibly by October. A previous attempt to complete a test-fir ... read more