Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by N2e (talk | contribs) at 15:20, 12 September 2016 (→History: tweak). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The New Glenn is a 7.0-metre (23 ft)-diameter two- or three-stage orbital launch vehicle currently in its fourth year of development by Blue Origin. It is expected to make its initial test launch prior to 2020.

The design work on the vehicle began in 2012. The high-level specifications for the vehicle were publicly announced in September 2016.

The first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines, also designed and manufactured by Blue Origin. The first stage is reusable, just like the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle that preceeded it.

History

After beginning development of an orbital system prior to 2012, Blue Origin announced the existence of their new orbital launch vehicle in September 2015. In January 2016, Blue Origin indicated that the new rocket will be many times larger than New Shepard even though it would be the smallest of the family of Blue Origin orbital vehicles. Blue Origin intends to make more details public later in 2016. Blue publicly released the high-level design of the vehicle—and announced the name: New Glenn—in September 2016.

Orbital subsystems and earlier development work

Blue Origin began developing systems for orbital human spacecraft prior to 2012. A reusable first-stage booster was projected to fly a suborbital trajectory, taking off vertically like the booster stage of a conventional multistage rocket. Following stage separation, the upper stage would continue to propel astronauts to orbit while the first-stage booster would descend to perform a powered vertical landing similar to the New Shepard suborbital Propulsion Module. The first-stage booster would be refueled and launched again, allowing improved reliability and lowering the cost of human access to space.

The booster rocket was projected to loft Blue Origin’s biconic Space Vehicle to orbit, carrying astronauts and supplies. After orbiting the Earth, the Space Vehicle will reenter Earth’s atmosphere to land on land under parachutes, and then be reused on future missions to Earth orbit.

Blue Origin successfully completed a System Requirements Review (SRR) of its orbital Space Vehicle in May 2012.

Engine testing for the Reusable Booster System (RBS) vehicle began in 2012. A full-power test of the thrust chamber for Blue Origin BE-3 liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen rocket engine was conducted at a NASA test facility in October 2012. The chamber successfully achieved full thrust of 100,000 pounds-force (about 440 kN).

Orbital launch vehicle

Revealed in 2015, the Blue Origin orbital launch vehicle—which began to be referred to by the placeholder name of "Very Big Brother" in March 2016 —is a two-stage-to-orbit liquid-propellant rocket. The launcher is intended to be reusable. In January 2016, Blue Origin announced that they plan to announce details about the launch vehicle later in 2016, and a few details were released in March 2016 when Blue Origin indicated that the first orbital launch was expected, from the Florida launch facility, in 2020.

The first stage is to be powered by Blue Origin's BE-4 single-shaft oxygen-rich staged combustion liquid methane/liquid oxygen rocket engine while the second stage will be powered by the recently qualified BE-3 tap-off cycle liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine. The number of engines powering each stage has not been released, nor has the payload or gross launch weight specifications. No details were publicly released as of September 2015.

Blue Origin intends to launch the rocket from the historic Launch Complex 36, and manufacture the rockets at a new facility on nearby land in Exploration Park. Acceptance testing of the BE-4 engines will also be done in Florida.

References

1. ^ Bergin, Chris (2016-09-12). "Blue Origin introduce the New Glenn orbital LV". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference sn20150915 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. Howell, Elizabeth (2016-02-29). "Blue Origin: Quiet Plans for Spaceships". Space.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05. already more than three years into development of our first orbital vehicle ... Though it will be the small vehicle in our orbital family, it's still many times larger than New Shepard. hope to share details about this first orbital vehicle this year {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Blue Origin – About Blue was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. "Blue Origin Completes Spacecraft System Requirements Review". Retrieved 5 April 2013.
6. "Blue Origin tests 100k lb LOX/LH2 engine in commercial crew program". NewSpace Watch. 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2012-10-17. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
7. Berger, Eric (2016-03-09). "Behind the curtain: Ars goes inside Blue Origin's secretive rocket factory". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference gw20160305 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Jeff Bezos plans to boost humans into space from Cape Canaveral, CBS News, accessed 2015-09-17. Bezos: "You cannot afford to be a space-fairing civilization if you throw the rocket away every time you use it. ... We have to be focused on reusability, we have to be focused on lowering the cost of space."
10. Bergin, Chris (2016-01-22). "Blue Origin conduct successful reuse test with New Shepard". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 2016-01-25. hope to share details about this first orbital vehicle this year. And launch and land our New Shepard rocket – again and again.
11. "Breaking News | ULA taps Blue Origin for powerful new rocket engine". Spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved 2015-04-08.

• Blue Origin
• Private spaceflight
• VTVL rockets
• Space launch vehicles
• Proposed reusable space launch systems