Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket launches: how and when to watch

Blue Origin is preparing for one of its biggest launches to date. On Monday, the commercial space company owned by Jeff Bezos will attempt to send its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket into space for the first time.

The launch comes after nearly a decade of development, and its outcome could threaten the dominance of Elon Musk's SpaceX — and not just in the commercial space industry But also in the satellite internet business. Here's an overview of what you need to know about the New Glenn flight and how to watch it live.

First announced in 2016blue origin new glen rocket Its purpose is to send cargo, satellites and, in the future, people into space. New Glenn is named after John Glenn. First NASA astronaut to enter Earth's orbit,

Its first phase operates from seven Blue Origin's powerful BE-4 engineWhich run on liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen. Blue Origin aims to reuse New Glenn's first stage for at least 25 missions, as it is designed to touch down vertically on a sea-based platform after launch, allowing the company to retrieve it.

The rocket's upper stage is disposable and carries Blue Origin's payload. It is capable of sending 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit and 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit. Blue Origin says the New Glenn is “engineered with the safety and redundancies required to fly humans.” Although Blue Origin initially aimed to launch New Glenn in 2020, its inaugural flight kept being pushed back due to issues of Development of its BE-4 engine And Other technical accidents,

As As pointed out by NPRNew Glenn's carrying capacity is similar to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, but it stands out with a larger cargo bay, 23 feet wide. If New Glenn's launch is successful, it could escalate its rivalry with SpaceX as both companies compete to secure lucrative government contracts.

New Glen also has the key Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite internet initiativeAlthough the company's first set of satellites is scheduled Launch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket This year, Blue Origin will finally launch The Project Kuiper satellites at New Glenn are competing with SpaceX's Starlink. Amazon plans to send 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites into space, which is still too few Starlink Rising Constellation Of more than 6,000 satellites.

New Glenn is set to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 13 at 1 p.m. ET (10 p.m. PT) with a three-hour launch window. The launch was originally scheduled for January 10, but was moved up due to “high seas in the Atlantic”. By January 12th at the earliest And Then till 13th January Because “still adverse” conditions continued.

During this uncrewed launch, New Glenn will have blue ring pathfinder On board, a payload consisting of a communications array, a power system and a flight computer. it will test Company's Blue Ring spacecraftWhich will help support missions with refueling, hosting, data relay and cloud computing capabilities. The goal for New Glenn is to reach orbit, while “anything beyond that”, such as landing its reusable booster, is a “bonus”. According to Blue Origin CEO David Limp,

“This is our first flight and we have prepared hard for it,” New Glenn senior vice president Jarrett Jones said in a statement. “But there is no ground test or mission simulation replacement for flying this rocket. It's time to fly. No matter what happens, we will learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”

Blue Origin will likely live stream the launch website And Youtube channelWe'll embed the stream below as soon as it becomes available.

Update 11 January: Updated to reflect most recent delay As of January 13th at 1PM ET.