Musk used to call the Moon ‘a distraction.’ Now he says SpaceX is building a city there.
Hot on the heels of a second successful launch — and first successful landing — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has announced the next version of its rocket. The New Glenn 9x4 — named for its number of engines — should operate alongside the existing 7x2, and could compete more closely with SpaceX’s Starship.
SpaceX rival Blue Origin had been planning a launch in “late spring,” following a successful first test in April, but CEO Dave Limp now says the target is August 15th. This time one of the key aims is to land and recover the booster, named “Never Tell Me The Odds” — one of the few points of failure from the first time out.
[x.com]
Citing conditions at sea that “are still unfavorable for booster landing,” the company posted that it’s pushing the mission back 24 hours to a three-hour launch window starting Monday at 1AM ET.
It’s the second delay since its January 10th target. Blue Origin will likely livestream the launch on its website and YouTube channel. See our write-up below for more mission details.
Trump mentioned his dinner with the billionaire Amazon founder and Washington Post owner during his interview with Kristen Welker for Meet the Press today, according to NBC News.
He’s heard from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post: “We’re having dinner,” he said.
Bezos, who didn’t get along with the President-elect before, recently said he feels “optimistic” about his second term.
Bezos, who killed The Washington Post’s endorsement of Harris and also owns a space company with billions in government contracts, was among the first major US tech leaders to chime in this morning. He is certainly aware that one of his biggest rivals in aerospace is run by a close confidant of the president-elect.
Blue Origin leadership has viewed Donald Trump as positive for space. Most of Jeff Bezos’ focus is currently on Blue Origin. “Elon’s real superpower is getting government money,” Bezos has said, according to The Post.
Bezos claims spiking the Post’s Kamala Harris endorsement was a “principled decision.”
[The Washington Post]
It was just a little whoopsie it got announced so close to the election, that’s all! Also he didn’t know about the Blue Origin meeting with Trump and besides that was not his fault. “I sighed when I found out,” he says. I guess people are still canceling their subs!
[The Washington Post]
Nothing to see here, I’m sure. Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin and The Post, just really strongly felt like there didn’t need to be a presidential endorsement this time around, no reason.
Liftoff of its uncrewed NS-27 mission is now scheduled for 12PM ET. Starting 15 minutes before liftoff, you can catch the livestream on Blue Origin’s website.
NS-27 will be the first flight for the company’s new RSS Kármán Line crew capsule, and includes 12 payloads, including LIDAR sensors for its Lunar lander program.
Update: The launch has been cancelled due vehicle issues.
[Blue Origin]
All of the crew of Blue Origin’s NS-25 flight have emerged from the capsule, safe and sound. That includes Ed Dwight, who was selected as the first Black Astronaut candidate in the early days of NASA’s space program but never went to space before today.
“I thought I really didn’t need this in my life,” he said during Blue Origin’s livestream, “but now I need it in my life.”
The capsule parachuted down to the desert too, landing shortly after the New Shepard rocket. One of its parachutes didn’t deploy fully, but Blue Origin’s webcasters say the company has tested for that possibility and that it’s fine. They added that the crew are reporting they’re fine.
The reusable rocket that just took the NS-25 capsule into space has now touched down in the desert of West Texas.
At about 3:46 into the flight, Blue Origin confirmed its NS-25 mission had passed into space, and its astronauts were in zero g space. The capsule is now descending back to earth.
Blue Origin’s rocket engines have fired, carrying its crew of six space tourists skyward.
The walkway is retracted and New Shepard has switched to autonomous mode — the launch now can’t be canceled.
Blue Origin’s livestream popped this image up, showing that about eight percent of women who’ve flown to space have been on New Shepard.
The company has also updated its targeted launch time for New Shepard’s NS-25 mission to 10:13AM ET. The livestream is also showing video now.
Live coverage should be starting soon for the 25th launch of New Shepard, which hasn’t taken humans aboard in about two years after a booster malfunction on an uncrewed mission paused its space tourism launches in September 2022.
Blue Origin’s rocket is vertical on the launch pad and the company now targeting 9:52AM ET for launch.
Ars Technica reports that Blue Origin may conduct a flight test of its reusable New Shepard rockets skyward next month. It’s been just over a year since the catastrophic failure of its NS-23 mission, when its uncrewed capsule safely ejected as the rocket exploded.
As Ars writes, “two sources familiar with the company’s manifest” say if the “tentative plans” go well, it will conduct a crewed flight in mid-February.
The New York Times reports that the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, FBI, and Air Force have issued a “broad warning” to firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin saying to look out for foreign actors, like Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies, who they believe are trying to infiltrate their networks and steal data.
The report notes that in 2020, the United Launch Alliance said a Chinese firm attempted to infiltrate its supply chain, and last year the Russian military reportedly hacked into Viasat satellites.
[The New York Times]
