The reports have been coming in since the start of this year that this will be the year that Blue Origin's New Glenn Launches. We now have a date.
In a presentation at a meeting of a planetary protection committee of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) in London April 24, Nick Benardini, NASA’s planetary protection officer, listed a Sept. 29 date for the launch of Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, a pair of smallsats that will go into orbit around Mars to measure the interaction of the planet’s magnetosphere with the solar wind.
NASA selected Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket to launch ESCAPADE, awarding the company a $20 million task order through the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract in February 2023 for the mission. The award at the time mentioned only a late 2024 launch, with the expectation that ESCAPADE would be on one of the first, if not the first, flight of the rocket.
To say this is a much anticipated and ballyhooed launch is a bit of an
understatement. I've lost count of the real estimate for how far behind
schedule this is, but I have a pretty good idea they were late when I first
started blogging on space stories. (A quick search found a 2017 post saying New Glenn might launch by 2020)
That said, I should point out that the estimate isn't from Blue themselves, but from NASA.
Among the pacing items for this mission are seven BE-4 engines, which will power New Glenn's first stage. A handful of sources inside Blue Origin believe the company is making credible progress toward a launch attempt this year.
You'll recall that Blue Origin rolled out a "Pathfinder" vehicle out to SLC-36
on Cape Canaveral SFS for testing
back in February.
“Everything on the pad is real New Glenn hardware,” the company said in a Feb. 21 statement about the pathfinder vehicle. That vehicle, though, lacked BE-4 engines in its first stage, and some components of the pathfinder were not flight hardware.
The New Glenn Pathfinder, photographed in February. Image credit: Blue Origin
What do you think? I don't think I'd schedule a big trip to see it, but it's worth keeping an eye on the status. If those seven BE-4 engines run into trouble, New Glenn's not going anywhere, so especially look for news on that.