Falcon 9 launching on July 8, 2024 from Cape Canaveral Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusvill
The Federal Aviation Administration, the agency responsible for commercial spaceflight, has announced that SpaceX may resume regular launches of Falcon 9.
The FAA notified SpaceX on Oct. 11 that the Falcon 9 vehicle is authorized to return to regular flight operations. The FAA reviewed and accepted the SpaceX-led investigation findings and corrective actions for the mishap that occurred with the Crew-9 mission (Sept. 28).
Also on Oct. 11, FAA closed the SpaceX-led investigations for the Falcon 9 mishaps that occurred with the Starlink 9-3 (July 11) and Starlink 8-6 (Aug. 28) missions.
The FAA, October 11, 2024
Why Falcon 9 Was Grounded By The FAA
After launching NASA’s Crew 9 mission with Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA Astronaut Nick Hague aboard Crew Dragon on their mission to the International Space Station on September 28, 2024, the second stage of Falcon 9 separated from the capsule and was later commanded to fire its engine one last time in order for it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. A specific area in the Pacific Ocean was targeted so as to minimize any risk of surviving debris causing injuries or property damage.
FAA Headquarters Photo: The FAA
Due to what SpaceX labeled as an “off-nominal de-orbit burn” the second stage used for the Crew 9 flight missed its landing area, resulting in SpaceX announcing nearly immediately that it had experienced an anomaly and that it was grounding the vehicle while it investigated the issue. On September 29, the FAA announced that was requiring an investigation and that until complete, the federal agency would not issue the vehicle any new launch licenses. In effect, this “grounded” Falcon 9.
The FAA did grant SpaceX a license for the ESA Hera launch on October 7, saying that there was no risk to public safety because the mission did not dispose of its second stage by deorbiting it in Earth’s atmosphere.
A Falcon Heavy launching from Kennedy Space Center earlier this year. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
The launch schedule for the Europa Clipper mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy remains uncertain today after Hurricane Milton’s passing through the Space Coast region.
Effects of Hurricane Milton
Originally scheduled to launch on October 10, the launch was postponed in advance of Hurricane Milton’s approach and the payload and rocket were both secured for the approaching storm.
Today, a little more than a day after Milton’s surviving eye wall passed through the Space Coast region, NASA and SpaceX are checking for damage to the facilities on the base.
According to NASA, “Once the winds subsided to a safe level [yesterday], the center’s Ride Out Team and engineering teams began initial checkouts to ensure bridges are safe and useable. Later, a larger assessment team will thoroughly check the entire center.”
The eye of Hurricane Milton as it passed over the east coast of Florida on October 10th. Data: National Weather Service, KLMB weather radar, Tilt 1.
Part of that check will of course be the LC-39A infrastructure used to launch Falcon Heavy, as well as other buildings and infrastructure necessary to support the launch. That will also include areas not on Kennedy Space Center proper, for example, the Space Launch Delta 45 supports launch tracking, safety and weather, and they too much give the all-clear prior to a launch. (UPDATE: Space Launch Delta 45 issued an all-clear at 2PM October 11)
From the US Space Force, post-Milton. Photo: Space Launch Delta 45
The eye of the storm went offshore somewhere near Titusville and Kennedy Space Center about 4 AM EDT on Thursday, but the region continued to experience sustained winds well into the day before finally subsiding late in the afternoon.
Extremely Tentative Plans For Sunday
Neither NASA nor SpaceX have officially announced a launch date for Europa Clipper, with NASA saying yesterday that “The agency’s Europa Clipper launch team will schedule an official launch date when teams from NASA and SpaceX are able to perform their assessments, and confirm it’s safe to launch. Teams are working to protect launch opportunities no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 13.”
The agency added that the launch window for this mission extends until November 6th.
Weather should not be a problem for the launch team from Sunday onward into next week, as the general weather forecast for the region calls for sunny skies.
National Weather Long-Term forecast for Cape Canaveral Retrieved Friday, October 11th at 12:45 PM EDT
Launch Licensing?
The FAA currently has a hold on the Falcon family launches while the company investigates a second-stage anomaly with Crew 9, but that will not be a problem for this launch as it will be licensed by NASA.
Talk of Titusville reached out to the FAA for clarification, and they replied, “An FAA license is not required for space activities the government carries out for the government, such as some NASA or Department of Defense launches. The Europa Clipper mission is being done by and for NASA.”
As such the FAA’s required investigation will not be a factor for this launch.
SpaceX and the European Space Agency are planning to launch ESA’s Hera probe from Space Launch Complex 40 on Monday, October 7th. The launch window extends from 10:52 AM – 11:27 AM EDT.
At A Glance:
Date: NET October 7, 2024
Organization: SpaceX / European Space Agency
Mission: Hera
Rocket: Falcon 9
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Launch Window: 10:52 AM – 11:27 AM EDT
Payload: Hera Probe
Booster Landing Site: Expended
A Falcon 9 on the launch mount at Space Launch Complex 40 in August 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Falcon Family Returns To Flight, For This One Flight
The flight will mark the return to flight for Falcon family rockets after the September 28, 2024 launch of Crew 9 from Cape Canaveral, but according to the FAA it is for the Hera After launching NASA’s Crew 9 mission with Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA Astronaut Nick Hague aboard Crew Dragon on their mission to the International Space Station, the second stage of Falcon 9 separated from the capsule and was later commanded to fire its engine one last time in order for it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
A specific area in the Pacific Ocean was targeted so as to minimize any risk of surviving debris causing injuries or property damage. The second stage’s final burn was “off-nominal,” according to SpaceX, and the stage re-entered outside of its designated area. SpaceX immediately announced it was “pausing” Falcon 9 flights while it investigated the matter and two days later, the FAA announced that it was requiring a formal investigation into the incident.
Falcon 9 second stage after shutting down on September 28, 2024
Photo: NASA – SpaceX livestream
That investigation put the Monday, October 7 target date for Hera’s launch in doubt, but SpaceX has been given a special exemption for the Hera flight because the second stage will not be re-entering Earth orbit:
Assuming a successful LRR (Launch Readiness Review), Falcon 9 will again soar over Florida skies tomorrow morning.
Payload
According to ESA, “Hera is a planetary defence mission under development at the European Space Agency. Its objectives are to investigate the Didymos binary asteroid, including the very first assessment of its internal properties, and to measure in great detail the outcome of NASA’s DART mission kinetic impactor test. Hera will provide extremely valuable information for future asteroid deflection missions and science; increasing our understanding of asteroid geophysics as well as solar system formation and evolutionary processes.”
SpaceXwill have a live stream of the launch on its website. This will also be available on the X platform. Coverage starts about fifteen minutes before liftoff.
Spaceflight Now will have coverage of the launch starting about one hour before liftoff on Youtube: link
For official updates regarding launch times, SpaceX.com is the best source of information. Starlink launch times change from time to time, and the company generally updates their website within minutes of the decision to change the launch time. This is very handy if none of the streaming options on YouTube have started their broadcasts.
Remember that there is a delay between a launch stream and the actual countdown clock. That is simply because of physics: it takes time for the signal to travel from the launch site, through the Internet, and back down to your phone, resulting in a five to fifteen-second delay.
Next Space Flight an app for iOS and Android phones, has a real-time countdown clock that is accurate to a second, give or take. The app is free. Search the App Store or Google Play. They are also on the web: nextspaceflight.com.
Launch Viewing: In Person
Since the launch is during the morning, a lot of options are available for spectators: Jetty Park, the Banana River Bridge on FL 528 W or the southern Titusville parks on Washington Avenue / US-1 are your best bets.
Cocoa Beach will have great views of the launch once it clears any obstructions from the rising rocket and a viewer’s location.
Playalinda Beach is several miles north of the launch pad, but ignition and of course the flight of the rocket are visible from that location. If you go, go early in case the crowds are heavy.
This flight is one where the booster will be expended after its duty cycle. This is being done in order to get the maximum performance possible out of the launch vehicle. That in mind, there will be no sonic boom in the Space Coast region for a returning booster.
The “Big Vent” event at T-minus twenty minutes for a Falcon 9 rocket is a common sight here on the Space Coast. This is liquid nitrogen being vented out of the propellant fill lines. The clouds are condensation and are harmless. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Cert-2 mission lifting off from Cape Canaveral this morning. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
United Launch Alliance successfully launched its second Vulcan rocket this morning from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral. The launch was not a perfect one, however, as Vulcan survived a very close call when one of the two solid-rocket boosters on the first stage partially failed and lost its nozzle in flight.
Despite a partial loss of thrust from the errant SRB, ULA’s flight software and engineering teams were able to make corrections to trajectory of the rocket as it continued to ascent.
Later, ULA CEO Tory Bruno would say that the SRB had “an observation” and he added quickly that the mission was a success.
Problems with the left-hand solid rocket booster are apparent shortly after liftoff. Compare the distorted shape of the SRB at left with the one at right. Photo: Chris Leymarie / Florida Media Now
Vulcan uses Northrop Grumman-built GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters to provide additional thrust for the vehicle and to increase its capabilities. GEM motors have a long history of usage, and the 63XL edition was flying its third and fourth flights. Two other GEM 63XLs flew with no problem on Vulcan Cert-1.
graphic: Northrup Grumman
Later on X.com, Tory Bruno stated, “All missions have propellant reserves. We add to that additional propellant margins based on the mass [and] the configuration of the rocket. Because this was compensated for within reserves, this anomaly was ‘invisible’ to the rocket.” Bruno credited “Robust design and well engineered avionics” for the resilience of Vulcan, and indeed, it is one of the very few rockets launched that had an SRB failure and still successfully completed their mission.
Launch Replay
Video starts at t-minus five minutes.
Next Launch:
The next launch from Florida is a tricky call: SpaceX and the FAA have “paused” Falcon family launches while the company investigates issues with Falcon 9s second stage — there was an “off-nominal” performance of the Crew 9 second stage after the astronauts had separated from the launch vehicle when the stage was relit to de-orbit and reenter Earth’s atmosphere.
At this time, SpaceX has not announced a return to flight for Falcon rockets, and the FAA has not yet released a safety determination on the Crew 9 event that would allow SpaceX to resume flights.
Both of those could come at any time, however, and given the short stand-downs earlier in the summer with other Falcon issues, odds are good that this delay will be shorter rather than longer.
Should SpaceX announce Falcon 9 returning to action, its next scheduled launch is for the European Space Agency and the Hera mission. According to ESA, “As part of the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting moonlet of a binary asteroid system known as Didymos.”
“Now that NASA’s DART mission has impacted the moonlet, Hera will turn the grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique. Demonstrating new technologies from autonomous navigation around an asteroid to low gravity proximity operations, Hera will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system and Europe’s flagship Planetary Defender.”
Date: NET October 7, 2024
Organization: SpaceX / ESA
Mission: Hera
Rocket: Falcon 9
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Launch Window: 10:52 — 11:27 AM EDT
Payload: Hera probe
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Cert-2 mission lifting off from Cape Canaveral this morning. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of TitusvilleVulcan climbing into the skies at dawn on October 4. 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of TitusvilleNear the end of the solid-rocket booster phase of flight, Vulcan left a trail behind itself as it flew to orbit on October 4, 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
“The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX NASA Crew-9 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on September 28. The incident involved the Falcon 9 second stage landing outside of the designated hazard area. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation.”
FAA, September 30, 2024
The FAA did note that no injuries or property damage has been reported, which is their primary concern in this matter.
For their part, SpaceX announced on Sunday that they were pausing Falcon-family launches while they conducted their investigation into the issue with the Crew-9 second stage:
SpaceX via X.com
Effectively, the FAA’s announcement today formalizes a process that SpaceX had already announced and started.
What Happened?
After launching NASA’s Crew 9 mission with Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA Astronaut Nick Hague aboard Crew Dragon on their mission to the International Space Station, the second stage of Falcon 9 separated from the capsule and was later commanded to fire its engine one last time in order for it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. A specific area in the Pacific Ocean was targeted so as to minimize any risk of surviving debris causing injuries or property damage.
In that post he McDowell said, “Here is the ground track showing the planned reentry area at bottom left. My analysis suggests that an off nominal deorbit that still ends up with stage reentry will impact on the orange line somewhere between the end of the white rectangle and the equator.”
Falcon 9 Second Stage expected track, per Dr. Jonathan McDowell. via X.com
Why Is This Important?
While the Pacific Ocean is obviously a very big place, and relatively speaking, the second stage of a rocket is not, planned re-entries must still come down in their designated zone. Outside of that is considered a hazardous operation because of the non-zero chance of injuries or property damage. In turn, this triggers the need for a formal investigation prior to the FAA issuing a launch license for SpaceX’s next mission.
How Long Is Falcon 9 Grounded?
It depends. If SpaceX can make a case that this issue would not have resulted in increased danger to people or property, they can ask the FAA to make a determination of that as fact and to resume issuing Falcon family launch licenses while SpaceX completes their investigation(s) and subsequent modifications and improvements to Falcon 9’s second stage.
That would imply that this launch pause will also be short, but it is difficult to say that with complete certainty, given that this is the second failure of a Falcon-family second-stage in the past three months.
As always, stay tuned. There’s more to come on this story.
United Launch Alliance’s CERT-2 rocket on its way to the launch mount at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral on September 30, 2024. Photo: United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance has moved its second Vulcan Rocket from their Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 to the launch mount. Final preparations can now begin for a launch scheduled for NET (not earlier than) Friday morning. Launch time is unofficially expected to be between 06:00 AM – 009:00 AM EDT, but ULA has not yet announced an official time for T-0.
Test Mission
This mission, dubbed “CERT-2” will not carry a customer payload. Originally slated to launch Sierra’s Dream Chaser on its maiden voyage to the International Space Station, ULA and Sierra agreed to remove the payload because Sierra would not have Dream Chaser flight-ready this fall. Instead, ULA will fly an inert “dummy” to simulate a payload with the goal being to further prove out the Vulcan system and also to achieve certification from the Department of Defense for Vulcan to launch national defense payloads.
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan CERT-1 lifting off on January 8, 2024.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Vulcan is the first rocket designed wholly by United Launch Alliance. The Delta and Atlas family of rockets were legacy designs created by Boeing and Lockheed Martin respectively prior to the founding of the company in 2006. ULA is a joint venture between the two aerospace giants, and has successfully launched more than 157 missions since its inception.
According to the company, “This second Certification (Cert-2) launch will demonstrate Vulcan’s high-energy rocket architecture by achieving an Earth-escape trajectory and placing the Centaur V with an inert, non-deployable payload into deep space where it will orbit the sun for the rest of time. Cert-2 follows Vulcan’s successful inaugural launch on Jan. 8, 2024.”
Vulcan CERT-2 will be externally identical to the CERT-1 vehicle: along with the methane-oxygen fueled first stage powered by two Blue Origin BE-4 engines (the same engine Blue Origin will use with New Glenn) the first stage will also have two GEM solid-rocket boosters attached to give it additional lifting power. Together, the methane-fueled main engines and SRBs will provide the 2 million pounds (8.9 kilo-Newtons) of thrust generated at liftoff to power Vulcan off the launch pad.
Mark Peller, ULA’s senior vice president, Vulcan Development and Advanced Programs said in a press release that, “After the key objectives necessary for certification are completed, the mission will evaluate additional changes to the design of the upper stage and how it is operated over long coast periods to further increase its endurance.”
In other words, ULA plans to first meet the requirements of DoD certification, and afterwards, work on iterative improvements on the new vehicle.
The United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket is transported from the Vertical Integration Facility-G (VIF-G) to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in preparation for the second certification mission (Cert-2). Photo credit: United Launch Alliance
Falcon 9 flying to space on September 29, 2024. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Overnight, SpaceX announced that it had experienced an anomaly with the Falcon 9 second stage used to launch Crew 9 on September 28, and that it was grounding the vehicle while it investigated the issue:
At the time of this writing, the Federal Administration Administration (FAA) has not commented on this matter, or whether it would formally withhold launch licensing from Falcon 9 while SpaceX completed its investigation.
Crew 9 Proceeding As Planned
Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexsandr Gurbonov, left, and NASA Astronaut Nick Hague. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Notably, this incident occurred after Commander Nick Hague and Mission Specialist Alexsandr Gurbonov had separated from the second stage, and beforehand, the stage had provided a nominal orbital insertion for them aboard Crew Dragon and Crew 9. That mission continues with a planned docking at ISS sometime around 5:30 PM EDT today.
So What Happened?
SpaceX’s announcement was sparse on details, however the problem was explained well by Dr. Jonathon McDowell of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
McDowell said X.com earlier this morning that the Falcon 9 second stage used yesterday did not deorbit as planned and probably came down east of New Zealand sometime overnight:
So where did the Crew-9 second stage come down? Here is the ground track of Crew-9 based on the TLE (orange) and the planned stage 2 deorbit area (white rectangle) pic.twitter.com/gBFlY2f9dJ
McDowell, who meticulously maintains a list of all launches and other space events, added on X.com, “The most likely failure mode that still results in reentry is a slight underburn (less delta-V, higher resulting perigee). If you underburn too much the perigee will be too high for reentry to occur. So you expect the entry to be further along the orange line but not by too much.”
He added in a successive post, “Here is the ground track showing the planned reentry area at bottom left. My analysis suggests that an off nominal deorbit that still ends up with stage reentry will impact on the orange line somewhere between the end of the white rectangle and the equator.”
The orbital ground track of Falcon 9’s second stage after the Crew 9 launch on September 28, 2024. Graphic: Dr. Jonathan McDowell on X.com
Practical Effects
SpaceX is known to complete its investigations quickly, and if it is not restricted from launching by the FAA, one can expect them to investigate and remediate the problems with the Falcon 9 second stages with alacrity. The chances, however, of the FAA requiring a formal investigation and safety determination seems high if the immediate past is any guideline.
Crew 9 Stage 2 on September 29, 2024 Photo: SpaceX, via NASA Livestream
It’s unknown if yesterday’s issue and the one on July 11th are related in any way, and any conjecture that they are is just guesswork at this point. Short of SpaceX announcing that there is any relationship between the Jully 11 issue and the one this morning on September 29, no one knows one exists. That said, it is a second problem in 2024 with the second stage of the venerable Falcon 9.
The FAA has yet to make any public comments regarding today’s SpaceX announcement, but it would not be surprising if they were to formally require a new public safety determination for the incident SpaceX described this morning.
Practical Effects
SpaceX has multiple launches upcoming on its immediate manifest, including the Europa Clipper on Falcon Heavy, which is planned to fly NET October 10 from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also have the HERA mission scheduled for NET October 7, a mission for OneWeb NET October 1st and a few Starlink mission interspersed in between. As always, SpaceX is busy.
technicians working to complete operations prior to propellant load for NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2024. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Those launch dates are reasonably in question as a result of the Crew 9 issue, as all are within a fifteen-day window of time, if using the July 2024 Falcon 9 second stage issue is any guideline.
None of that is set in stone, however, and this is a very fluid situation on Sunday, September 29th.
Crew 9 lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 on September 28, 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
SpaceX successfully launched the Crew 9 mission today from Space Launch Complex 40 in the first crewed launch from that storied pad. Liftoff was at 01:17 PM EDT under broken skies and a building threat of storms.
Crew 9 lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 on September 28, 2024 Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
A little more than eight minutes later, spectators were treated to a second awesome view as Booster B1085 completed its second mission successfully when it touched down a Landing Zone 1, roughly six miles from where it launched. A sonic boom echoed across the Space Coast.
Booster B1085 beginning its landing sequence,
After achieving orbit, Crew Dragon separated from Falcon 9’s second stage and astronauts Aleksandr Gorbunov and “Nick” Hague began performing checkouts of propulsion, life support, and thermal control systems. Later, Dragon will perform “phasing burns” where the spacecraft performs dorbit raising maneuvers to catch up with the International Space Station.
If all proceeds as planned, Hague and Gorbunov will arrive at ISS on Sunday, Sept. 29, with docking planned for 5:30 PM EDT.
Launch Replay
Next Launch
After a lull in a steady stream of Starlink launches, SpaceX will return to building out its orbital ISP NET Wednesday from Cape Canaveral. The launch window opens at 4:50 AM EDT and extends to 8:50 AM the same day.
Date: NET October 2, 2024
Organization: SpaceX
Mission: Starlink 10-10
Rocket: Falcon 9
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Gorbunov and NASA Astronaut Nick Hague greeted reporters and @NASA personnel yesterday at the old Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC. They launch NET Thursday 2:06 PM EDT. Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
NASA has announced that the SpaceX Crew 9 mission would not launch until Saturday due to potential effects from tropical storm Helene.
NASA and SpaceX teams have adjusted the next launch opportunity for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to no earlier than 1:17 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 28, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida due to expected tropical storm conditions in the area. The change allows teams to complete a rehearsal of launch day activities Tuesday night with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, which rolled to Space Launch Complex-40 earlier in the day. Following rehearsal activities, the integrated system will move back to the hangar ahead of any potential storm activity.
Although Tropical Storm Helene is moving through the Gulf of Mexico and expected to impact the Florida panhandle, the storm system is large enough that high winds and heavy rain are expected in the Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island regions on Florida’s east coast.
NASA’s reasoning is sound, according to the official forecast for Helene today, on September 24th:
Current Forecasts
The Tuesday September 24th PM forecast for Helene. Source: TROPICAL STORM HELENE, Retrieved 09/24/2024. Note: refer to official sources (NOAA, NHC, etc. for the current forecast!
The Space Coast is currently under a Tropical Storm watch, and effects from Helene are expected before and during the Thursday launch window. That’s not good for pre-launch preparations and not very likely to result in a clean range weather-wise Thursday afternoon.
NASA has identified Saturday at 1:17 p.m. EDT in an instantaneous window as the next possible launch date for Crew 9. The current National Weather Service forecast for Cape Canaveral calls for “a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Southwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.”
The 45th Weather Squadron will issue its official Probability of Violation forecast later this week if the September 28th attempt remains on schedule.
Stay tuned.
SpaceX’s Crew 9 logo. NASA uses a different one. Graphic: SpaceX
Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, provided this view of yesterday’s second-stage static fire. Photo: Blue Origin / Dave Limp via X.com
Blue Origin has achieved another milestone yesterday in their ramp-up to the maiden launch of their first orbital rocket when they static-fired the second stage of New Glenn for around fifteen seconds at SLC-36 at Cape Canaveral on September 23rd.
Note: Blue Origin refers to the second-stage of the vehicle as GS2.
According to Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, “GS2 is one of the largest and most capable upper stages ever developed with a propellant load comparable to a Delta IV booster. The two BE-3Us have a maximum thrust of up to 346,000 lbf (173,000 lbf per engine), which is the equivalent thrust of a dozen F-16 jets.”
That’s a lot of power, but it is only the launch vehicle’s second stage. The first stage of New Glenn produces 3,850,000 lbf of thrust, roughly half of a Saturn V. Whether there will be a full static fire of the booster has not been announced.
According to Blue Origin, New Glenn is slated to fly in November from Cape Canaveral.
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