Blue Origin is aiming to follow in the footsteps of SpaceX by landing the first stage of its new rocket, the New Glenn.
Landing the first-stage booster after deploying the upper stage to orbit allows it to be used for multiple flights, which helps to reduce mission costs.
Ahead of its first test flight later this year, Blue Origin shared a short video showing a test of the landing legs that will be attached to the New Glenn’s first stage. It shows how the legs will emerge at the base of the rocket in the final moments before touching down.
“We recently completed New Glenn’s first-stage test of its six landing legs — a key area for reusability, which lowers the cost of access to space,” the Jeff Bezos-led spaceflight company said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “The landing gear stow inside the rocket during flight, deploying as the booster gently touches down on our landing vessel at sea.”
We recently completed New Glenn’s first stage test of its six landing legs—a key area for reusability, which lowers the cost of access to space. The landing gear stow inside the rocket during flight, deploying as the booster gently touches down on our landing vessel at sea. pic.twitter.com/3xUSUPDQyk
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 17, 2024
Blue Origin already lands its New Shepard rocket shortly after liftoff, but bringing the New Glenn home will be a far more complex operation. That’s because the New Shepard is a single-stage suborbital vehicle, while the New Glenn is a considerably larger two-stage machine that will fly far higher than the New Shepard.
Blue Origin’s new rocket, which was raised for the first time on a Kennedy Space Center launchpad in February, stands at about 320 feet (98 meters) tall. That includes a seven-meter payload fairing with twice the volume of standard five-meter class commercial launch systems, and which is described by the company as “large enough to hold three school buses.”
The New Glenn will be used for as many as 27 missions over the coming years to deploy Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet satellites in an initiative similar to SpaceX’s Starlink service. It will also deploy satellites for commercial customers and other organizations, with lunar missions also part of the plan.
Following a number of delays, the New Glenn’s debut launch is expected to take place no earlier than September 29, 2024, when it will NASA’s EscaPADE spacecraft to Mars.
