According to the company owned by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin is targeting January 10 for launch of its massive new rocket New Glenn.
The company said that "New Glenn's first mission (NG-1) is targeting no earlier than Friday, January 10, from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida," the company said in a blog post.
"NG-1 is our first National Security Space Launch certification flight," it added.
New Glenn will launch a payload, the Blue Ring Pathfinder, under the Defense Innovation Unit's Orbital Logistics programme. This is to test critical systems for that program.
For the mission, the company emphasized that its first priority is reaching orbit safely. It will also attempt an "ambitious" landing of the booster in the Atlantic, marking its first try at landing offshore.
“This is our first flight, and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” said Jarrett Jones, SVP, New Glenn.
“But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations is a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch,” he added.
In December, Blue Origin announced that New Glenn had passed the critical hot-fire test. It was the first test of the integrated launch vehicle.
The vehicle remained firmly clamped to the launchpad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during the test.
The company integrated the encapsulated Blue Ring Pathfinder into the launch vehicle following the hot-fire test. Blue Origin also obtained a commercial space launch license from the US Federal Aviation Administration for New Glenn's launch.
"The Blue Ring Pathfinder is integrated. We have received a launch license. Here we go! said Dave Limp, CEO, of Blue Origin in a post on the social media platform X.
New Glenn is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built and launched, standing 98 meters tall. It was originally scheduled for its debut launch in 2020 but has been repeatedly delayed by the development of the BE-4.
New Glenn is named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, who was the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. He completed three orbits in 1962.
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