Blue Origin is playing big: its New Glenn is leaving for Mars this November 9, and will try to return to Earth!

It is one of the most gigantic launchers of its generation, at 98 meters high. The New Glenn, from the company Blue Origin, created by Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon, will carry out its second test flight this Sunday, November 9.

And what a second flight! The rocket weighing around 1,500 tonnes – half the size of a Saturn V and a quarter of a Starship – will have to send two satellites to Mars on an unprecedented trajectory, before its first stage attempts the dangerous maneuver: returning to land on a barge at sea in order to be reused soon.

The New Glenn has seven BE-4 engines running on a mixture of methane and oxygen, known to release a beautiful blue plume. Its thrust is approximately 1700 tonnes. It can be noted that Blue Origin carried out a ground test of the seven engines on October 30, and here is what it said: “All seven engines operated nominally with a test duration of 38 seconds, including all seven engines operating at 100% thrust for 22 seconds”.

“Never tell me the odds”, is the name given to the NG-2 booster, and Blue Origin’s new geek reference, after “So you tell me there is a chance”. Never tell me the odds is a replica of Han Solo maneuvering in an asteroid field, in the Star Wars film. The meaning is more or less the same as for the inaugural flight of the NG-1: the chances are low, but they exist.

The NG-2 carries in its giant fairing of 7 meters in diameter, and approximately 450 m³two NASA satellites, EscaPADE, heading towards Mars, which we have already talked about here.
If this new trajectory fulfills its objectives, it could make it possible to launch missions to Mars without waiting for the usual window of one month every two years.
With Blue and Gold, NASA’s two Mars probes, a third passenger hopes that the NG-2 will succeed in its flight: a telemetry demonstrator from the company Viasaat.

The next key point is the ability of the booster to return to sea, on the barge.jacklyn“So far, in the professional world, only SpaceX has managed to land vertically and reuse its launchers. Blue Origin needs to enter the big leagues.

This mission precedes one of immense strategic significance…

Dave Limp, President and CEO of Blue Origin, recalls that a failure, including a lack of recovery of the booster, would not be “nevermind“, because production of the New Glenn is already well underway. Certainly, but that’s not the problem: this booster is planned for a new mission, scheduled for January: sending the lunar lander, Blue Moon, to demonstrate its ability to land on our satellite.

And given the state of tension between NASA, worried that its Artemis program will be overtaken by China, and SpaceX’s Starship HLS which is far from operational, there is no doubt that those responsible for the American agency will look closely at what Blue Origin is capable of.

Where to watch NG-2 live on Sunday, November 9?

Many streamers will broadcast the event. It will be possible to enjoy the show on the channel Blue Originquite simply, or on those of your favorite streamers. We recommend, among other things, Space Techniquesor for example Ufotinik

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