Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket reached a major milestone this week, completing its first second-stage hot fire test, validating the interaction between subsystems, two BE-3U engines and ground control systems. The test, which lasted 15 seconds, allowed the launch operations team to practice launch procedures ahead of New Glenn’s planned launch in November.
New Glenn is Blue Origin’s answer to SpaceX’s big rocket when it comes to launching objects into space, but Jeff Bezos’ company has been slow to do so, so far only making suborbital flights with its New Shepard rocket Space tourism flight. New Glenn was originally scheduled to jointly launch the small satellite ESCAPADE with NASA this year as its first mission, but it was recently canceled.
Now, New Glenn’s first mission (NG-1) will be to deliver the company’s new Blue Ring orbital platform into space. Blue Origin plans to launch the mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in November this year.
