An artist illustration by New Glenn preparing for launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Blue origin
Hell has no rage like the richest person in the world. Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin announced on Thursday that it was pushing back the debut date for New Glenn, its enormous, heavy-lifting rocket, and it was blamed for the delay in a flaming bag in front of the threshold of the US space force, the latest military branch.
Blue Origin had hoped for the vehicle, which would serve as a reusable competitor to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and Starship (though with much less loading capacity than Starship) by the end of this year. It now says that the fourth quarter of 2022 is the new target.
In a statement Thursday, the company said the schedule has been refined to suit the demand of Blue Origin’s commercial customers.
The statement further explicitly states that this is because Blue Origin has lost a major government contract.
“This updated first flight target follows the recent decision by the Space Force not to select New Glenn for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement (LSP).”
Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman were the losers in the four-way announced last August. SpaceX and United Launch Alliance won two contracts, each worth more than $ 300 million for various launches.
Just to make it clear that Blue Origin is not excited about losing, it concludes the statement by pointing out that it has invested $ 1 billion in rebuilding Launch Complex 36, which is part of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The U.S. space agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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