The New Glenn rocket, which belongs to the category of super heavy launchers, is due to make its maiden flight in 2024. The two stages were connected for the first time in January.
It is called New Glenn in homage to astronaut John Glenn, it is almost 100 meters high and its two floors have just been assembled for the first time in mid-January. A step forward which deserved a tweet from the American company Blue Origin, in charge of its construction, to announce the news.
“ The first and second stages of the New Glenn test vehicle fit together for the first time ”, reads the message, accompanied by a photograph showing the launcher in a horizontal position. Blue Origin’s schedule still provides for a first operational mission in 2024 for the machine.
A decade of development
Belonging to the family of super heavy launchers, the rocket is one of the tallest in the world. There are not many others that surpass it: there is the historic American Saturn V launcher, its Soviet rival N1, NASA’s very young Space Launch System (SLS) and the Starship, whose design continues.
Development of the New Glenn began during the 2010s, and the project was formalized in 2016. At the time, the launcher only existed in computer-generated images. It was also the time for slightly too optimistic calendars: in fact, the maiden flight of the machine was hoped for in 2020. This was before the delays and the coronavirus pandemic.
The first mission that Blue Origin will have to take on with the New Glenn will be a Martian mission. This involves launching the ESCAPADE (ESCApe and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer) mission, which includes two scientific probes to measure the magnetic fields and plasmas of Mars.
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