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The attachment of the New Glenn first stage aft and mid modules marked the final major mate operation, Blue Origin says.
Blue Origin will have a very tight timeline for the inaugural launch of its first orbital rocket, which will be carrying a pair of small NASA science satellites aiming to reach Mars.
Planetary alignments between Earth and Mars, which are optimal every 26 months, mean that New Glenn must launch by Oct. 21—just eight days after the company says it will be ready to fly.
The Oct. 13-21 launch window is an ambitious goal. The aft and mid modules of New Glenn’s reusable first stage were recently attached, clearing the path for installation of the vehicle’s seven methane-fueled BE-4 engines, CEO Dave Limp noted in an Aug. 23 update on the X social media site.
A static hot-fire at New Glenn’s Florida launch complex is planned prior to launch. The company did not release the status of the New Glenn upper stage, which is to be powered by a pair of BE-3U engines fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. A hot-fire of the second stage is also pending.
NASA in February 2023 awarded Blue Origin a contract to launch a pair of satellites designed to map plasma fields of Mars. The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (Escapade) spacecraft initially were scheduled to fly as secondary satellites on the Psyche mission in August 2022, but were removed due to problems with the required trajectory when the launch vehicle shifted from a SpaceX Falcon 9 to a Falcon Heavy.
Blue Origin, one of more than dozen vendors eligible to bid for small satellite launches and rideshare missions under NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program, was selected to fly Escapade under a contract worth $20 million, a government procurement database shows.
VADR is intended to provide a broad range of commercial launch services capable of delivering Class D, cubesats and higher risk-tolerant payloads to a variety of orbits.
Escapade is designed to study Mars’ magnetosphere using two identical small spacecraft to provide simultaneous two-point observations. The data is expected to help scientists understand the processes controlling the structure of Mars’ hybrid magnetosphere and how it guides ion flows; how energy and momentum are transported from the solar wind through Mars’ magnetosphere; and the processes controlling the flow of energy and matter into and out of the collisional atmosphere.
If launch is successful, Escapade will be released into a trans-Mars injection and a direct ballistic Hohmann Type II transfer orbit. The 11-month ballistic orbit will reach Mars and enter into a highly elliptical orbit in September 2025. Over about seven months, the satellites’ orbits will be adjusted until they reach the nominal science orbits in April 2026. The primary mission is expected to last 11 months.
Blue Origin did not immediately respond to questions about its backup plans if New Glenn was not ready to launch by Oct. 21.
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