The static test fire at Cape Canaveral SFS marked Blue Origin’s first fueling of a New Glenn rocket stage with flight propellants, and the first engine burn of an integrated flight stage.
Powered by a pair of BE-3U engines, the upper stage of New Glenn is intended to deliver a pair of small NASA science satellites on a trajectory to reach Mars.
Progress has been slow on Blue Origin's New Glenn orbital launch system under Bob Smith’s watch, with an expected 2024 debut coming four years behind schedule.
The space industry faces a “double bind” of insufficient launch capacity in the short term and oversupply in the long run, a McKinsey & Co. report says.
A pair of 6U science sats, originally slated to piggyback a ride to Mars with NASA’s Psyche asteroid probe, will instead launch aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn.