BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – If you’re hearing rumors about when the brand-new mega-rocket from a company other than SpaceX will launch from our Space Coast for the first time on a test flight, you’re not alone.
Blue Origin is the rocket builder founded by the second richest man in the world, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
All Blue Origin has said lately is it successfully test-fired the seven engines on its New Glenn rocket, but did not offer a launch date.
News 6 noticed the FAA has set aside a launch window for New Glenn for early Friday morning.
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But will Blue Origin target that window?
Only Blue Origin knows and only Blue Origin can say.
Blue Origin, unlike NASA, is not a public company and is not obligated to the same transparency that is expected from a taxpayer-funded agency.
Bezos, historically, has kept quiet about Blue Origin’s progress outside the Kennedy Space Center in the cavernous complex located on Space Commerce Way.
But in 2015, News 6 Anchor and Space Expert Erik von Ancken was there when Bezos had much to say, revealing his extraordinary vision at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at the future site of Blue Origin’s Vehicle Processing Facility alongside the launchpad.
“About 2,000 feet that way is going to be the new Launch Pad 36,” Bezos told the crowd of reporters and dignitaries. “And what is going to lift off from Launch Pad 36? I want to give you a little sneak peek. Here it is, the new orbital vehicle!”
That was the moment more than nine years ago Bezos promised the Space Coast he would make our home, his home, for his heavy-lift rocket and invest billions of dollars of his Amazon fortune here to make it happen.
“What does that mean to you, how does it feel?” von Ancken asked Bezos.
“I have some roots here in Florida, I went to high school in Miami, my dad is a Cuban immigrant, we have some ties to Florida, it’s a great state,” Bezos said.
“What are you calling it?” von Ancken asked.
“We don’t have a name yet, internally we’re calling it ‘Very Big Brother,’” Bezos said.
Bezos eventually settled on the name New Glenn after the legendary John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth.
New Glenn is one of the biggest rockets in the world, almost as big as NASA’s Artemis moon rocket and the monstrous Starship from SpaceX.
Bezos spent millions of dollars to renovate the old then-Air Force Station launchpad, last used decades ago, and hundreds of millions of dollars on the even bigger building just outside the Kennedy Space Center and now-Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Nine years ago, the spot along Space Commerce Way was an open field. Now the complex is where Bezos’ team has been designing, building and assembling the New Glenn.
New Glenn, like the rockets from SpaceX, intends to land back on Earth. Unlike SpaceX, Blue Origin has never tried to land a booster of this size, only its significantly smaller sub-orbital spaceships for tourists.
New Glenn’s BE-4 engines have flown to space successfully twice onboard a ULA Vulcan rocket.
In 2015, Bezos also promised New Glenn would fly by the end of the decade – last decade – and missed that deadline by about five years.
Last year, he fired Blue Origin’s CEO and told the team it’s time to move faster.
New Glenn went upright at Pad 36 over the last couple of weeks but was rolled back into the Processing Facility for final preparation where it currently remains.
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