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After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

arstechnica.com

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Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#11

Post by Retric »

teractiveodular wrote: post #2

We're at 12 years of design and 5 years behind the originally announced first launch of 2020 now. Space is hard, rocketry is harder and I wish them luck, but Blue Origin has an awfully long way to go if they want to catch up to SpaceX: this was meant to be the Falcon 9 killer, but odds are Starship will be fully operational before New Glenn completes testing.

It’s got more than twice the payload capacity of Falcon 9 to LEO and a 7m payload fairing vs 9m for Starship.

The real question is if there’s going to be enough demand to justify these systems. With enough reusability it might make sense to fly these things 2/3 empty, but that’s only going to be so profitable.

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#12

Post by avmich »

ternnoburn wrote: post #4
teractiveodular wrote: post #2

We're at 12 years of design and 5 years behind the originally announced first launch of 2020 now. Space is hard, rocketry is harder and I wish them luck, but Blue Origin has an awfully long way to go if they want to catch up to SpaceX: this was meant to be the Falcon 9 killer, but odds are Starship will be fully operational before New Glenn completes testing.

Starship will serve a different mission profile. People seem convinced Starship will just "solve" space, but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship. But if your point wasn't to say that it will be obsoleted by Starship, and just to say instead it's slower development than Starship, yeah, that's true. I suspect the head start in infrastruct…

I hope Blue Origin succeeds too, but I'm not sure which mission profiles wouldn't be served best by the Starship in comparison to other launchers. There could be some ultra-light ones, where the cost for the whole launch is less than refueling the Starship, but...

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#13

Post by bpodgursky »

ternnoburn wrote: post #4
teractiveodular wrote: post #2

We're at 12 years of design and 5 years behind the originally announced first launch of 2020 now. Space is hard, rocketry is harder and I wish them luck, but Blue Origin has an awfully long way to go if they want to catch up to SpaceX: this was meant to be the Falcon 9 killer, but odds are Starship will be fully operational before New Glenn completes testing.

Starship will serve a different mission profile. People seem convinced Starship will just "solve" space, but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship. But if your point wasn't to say that it will be obsoleted by Starship, and just to say instead it's slower development than Starship, yeah, that's true. I suspect the head start in infrastruct…

> but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship

I'm rooting for any and all US launch providers to succeed, but I don't think this is true. Starship at full reusability will be better than any other launcher for every single mission profile imaginable.

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#14

Post by Retric »

zizee wrote: post #10
ternnoburn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starship will serve a different mission profile. People seem convinced Starship will just "solve" space, but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship. But if your point wasn't to say that it will be obsoleted by Starship, and just to say instead it's slower development than Starship, yeah, that's true. I suspect the head start in infrastruct…

Which mission profiles does Starship not make sense for?

10t to LEO in an unusual orbit.

Being smaller than Starship while still huge isn’t necessarily a disadvantage.

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#15

Post by foobarian »

WWLink wrote: post #9
teractiveodular wrote: post #2

We're at 12 years of design and 5 years behind the originally announced first launch of 2020 now. Space is hard, rocketry is harder and I wish them luck, but Blue Origin has an awfully long way to go if they want to catch up to SpaceX: this was meant to be the Falcon 9 killer, but odds are Starship will be fully operational before New Glenn completes testing.

> Blue Origin has an awfully long way to go if they want to catch up to SpaceX Maybe we should just give the whole space industry to SpaceX because obviously nobody can touch them. /s

They seem perfectly good at doing that all on their own

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#16

Post by ternnoburn »

zizee wrote: post #10
ternnoburn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starship will serve a different mission profile. People seem convinced Starship will just "solve" space, but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship. But if your point wasn't to say that it will be obsoleted by Starship, and just to say instead it's slower development than Starship, yeah, that's true. I suspect the head start in infrastruct…

Which mission profiles does Starship not make sense for?

Smaller launch to a specific orbit. As an analogy, freight trains are one of the most efficient, cheapest ways to move freight. But moving my laundry to the laundromat is better served by another vehicle.

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#17

Post by numpad0 »

ternnoburn wrote: post #4
teractiveodular wrote: post #2

We're at 12 years of design and 5 years behind the originally announced first launch of 2020 now. Space is hard, rocketry is harder and I wish them luck, but Blue Origin has an awfully long way to go if they want to catch up to SpaceX: this was meant to be the Falcon 9 killer, but odds are Starship will be fully operational before New Glenn completes testing.

Starship will serve a different mission profile. People seem convinced Starship will just "solve" space, but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship. But if your point wasn't to say that it will be obsoleted by Starship, and just to say instead it's slower development than Starship, yeah, that's true. I suspect the head start in infrastruct…

Is Starship really not following the exact step of N-1 && VentureStar?

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#18

Post by ternnoburn »

bpodgursky wrote: post #13
ternnoburn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starship will serve a different mission profile. People seem convinced Starship will just "solve" space, but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship. But if your point wasn't to say that it will be obsoleted by Starship, and just to say instead it's slower development than Starship, yeah, that's true. I suspect the head start in infrastruct…

> but if it works, there's still going to be demand for other mission profiles that it won't make sense to send on Starship I'm rooting for any and all US launch providers to succeed, but I don't think this is true. Starship at full reusability will be better than any other launcher for every single mission profile imaginable.

There's simply no way one vehicle will be the best option in every case.

If you have a small satellite you need placed somewhere unique, firing up a huge launch vehicle makes no sense.

Re: After a 24-second test of its engines, the New Glenn rocket is ready to fly

#20

Post by wombatpm »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #7
teractiveodular wrote: post #2

We're at 12 years of design and 5 years behind the originally announced first launch of 2020 now. Space is hard, rocketry is harder and I wish them luck, but Blue Origin has an awfully long way to go if they want to catch up to SpaceX: this was meant to be the Falcon 9 killer, but odds are Starship will be fully operational before New Glenn completes testing.

Do you have some references of New Glenn being positioned as a Falcon 9 killer by any industry professionals, commentators or press with credibility (at the risk of no true Scotsman)? This was certainly thrown around with Tesla, but it's not something I've personally come across with SpaceX. Regardless, if semiconductors have taught us anything over the last decade, strong competition is essential for a healthy marke…

Boeing will probably buy one of the also rams to improve their offerings
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