Washington, DC – The second launch of Blue Origin’s huge new Glenn Rocket could only be months away.
The 320-foot-high (98 meters high) Glen was first lifted from Florida’s space shore on January 16th. The test flight was successful. The Rocket’s upper stage has managed to carry Payload, a test version of Blue Origin’s new Blue Ring Spacecraft platform, into Earth’s orbit.
The second goals didn’t go very well. The new Glenn first stage booster failed to land on a sea boat. (This was a predictable outcome, and the company emphasized. The successful touchdown on the debut flight was a pleasant surprise.) Blue Origin is based on a possible cause of the booster issue. , says he plans to try again soon.
The booster’s engine seemed to work well during the landing sequence, but “I think you understand what the problem is, as you couldn’t get everything right from the tank to the engine.” Wednesday (February 12th) speech at the 27th Commercial Space Conference.
He did not identify these issues, which he describes as “a combination of a few things.” Blue Origin is making some changes to the second new Glenn Booster to increase the chances of successful landings, Limp added.
“The revision is not complicated,” he said. “I don’t think it will slow our path to flight. I think we can still fly at the end of spring.”
Related: Blue Origin: Everything you need to know about Private Space Flight Company
Blue Origin has yet to announce which payload will fly in the second launch of New Glenn, and Limp says the company is “still looking for opportunities.”
“If that’s coming to it and we had to fly a mass simulator, we’ll fly a mass simulator,” he said.
The company considers the first three new Glen launches as a developmental flight, he added, but it has commercial customers for rockets since Flight 4.
The new Glen, which has been developed for about 10 years, is capable of carrying 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload into low earth orbit (LEO). 23 feet wide (7 m) payload fairing – the shell that surrounds and protects the satellite during launch is larger than that of a operating rocket.
