CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The Space Coast’s newest rocket could finally launch this weekend.
New Glenn from Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin was first unveiled a decade ago at the Cape.
Ultimately, it became one of the largest rockets in history.
At 320 feet, New Glenn is just about as tall as NASA’s SLS rocket for the Artemis moon program.
CBS New space consultant Bill Harwood was at the present site of Launch Complex 36 when Bezos pulled the curtain back and showed the world what New Glenn would look like.
With SpaceX becoming the dominant player in commercial spaceflight, News 6 reporter James Sparvero asked Harwood how much of a competitor Blue Origin can become with New Glenn.
Harwood said it’s too soon to tell.
“But they have pumped billions into this program and they’re certainly optimistic,” he said, noting upcoming missions are already lined up. “If this is a good test flight and they can ramp it up, I think they will provide some competition, but it’s gonna take some time.”
Like Falcon 9 rockets, New Glenn is built to be reusable too and Blue Origin will attempt to land the rocket booster on its first launch
Harwood agreed it’s a bold goal for a maiden flight.
“But the one thing I think Blue Origin has going for them — they launch the suborbital New Shepard rocket on those space tourist flights that just go up and down, but they recover that rocket every time with a rocket-powered landing,” he pointed out. “So they know how to do this. The difference is the New Glenn booster is gigantic compared to that. It’s much bigger than even the Falcon 9 booster that comes back.”
Blue Origin said landing the booster would be a bonus to its main objective — reaching orbit.
This would be the company’s first orbital launch since Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin 25 years ago.
The three-hour launch window opens Sunday morning at 1.
The launch was delayed 48 hours according to Blue Origin because of high seas for the booster recovery.
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