According to notes taken during a NASA Advisory Council meeting, Blue Origin could launch their new rocket called New Glenn no earlier than August 2024. NASA has a mission called ESCAPADE that is supposed to launch on top of this rocket to explore Mars. But NASA is not totally sure that the launch will happen then.
ESCAPADE stands for Earth-Mars Scope for Adaptive Departure and Atmospheric Entry. It includes two tiny satellites made by Rocket Lab that will study how to get to Mars safely. This mission is important for both Rocket Lab and Blue Origin. It will be the first launch of New Glenn and the first big satellite Rocket Lab has built themselves.
NASA paid Blue Origin only $20 million to launch ESCAPADE. That seems very cheap for such a big rocket launch. But Blue Origin probably has other smaller payloads that will also launch on New Glenn to make more money. Still, $20 million is a great price for NASA to exploration Mars.
New Glenn has been in development for a long time. Blue Origin has missed chances to win big NASA contracts before. We don’t know much about how development is going because Blue Origin does not share updates. But recently a photographer spotted thing that look like New Glenn’s nose cone pieces at Blue Origin’s launch site.
A Blue Origin manager also said the first New Glenn rocket will arrive at their launch site by the end of 2023. This means it could be ready for a launch in August 2024. Only time will tell if Blue Origin can really launch their first rocket that month. Development of new rockets can take longer than expected. Fingers crossed that ESCAPADE makes it to space on New Glenn to explore the Red Planet!
