So As I type this Blue Origin (BO) is scheduled to launch new glen flight 2 in about 15 hours.

BO started in 2000,
Spacex in 2002

Spacex > 580 launches, more than 512 orbital.
BO 37 total launches only one orbital.

The New Glen would have been revolutionary 15 years ago.
Now it seems like too little too late.
A bit bigger than Falcon 9, smaller than starship.
F9 heavey has more payload then New Glen and has flown 11 times.

If both stages starship reuse happens, New Glen will be entirely irrelevant.

Move fast and try again sure seems superior to
the BO traditional aerospace approach.

BO will cease to exist the day Bezos stops funding it. It in its present form is not a viable business.

Good analysis… Shows the effect of a very hands-on CEO!
Best,
Tom

It's true that BO is far behind SpaceX in many ways. I had the same attitude as you, but after reading Davenport's Rocket Dreams, I think I've changed my mind.

When BO lands New Glenn's booster, they'll only be the second company to do so. The global commercial launch market is big enough for more than one player, and there are enough people who don't want to use SpaceX (or can't get into their schedule) to leave plenty of room for BO. Since Dave Limp took over as CEO, BO has sped up their execution significantly. Bezos is much more directly involved in BO, too, and that brings 3 huge advantages to BO. He has lots of money and can easily get more thanks to Amazon; he isn't a quitter; and he really, really doesn't like Elon.

If I were Arianespace or ULA I'd be realllllly worried right about now.

It’s all going to come down to cost per launch, and of course availability. Yes, Starship is capable of lifting more, but that’s not what sells rides. What does it cost me to put up a spacecraft on each once they are both fully reusable? If Falcon Heavy will do the job for less, why wouldn’t I go that route?

Competition is good, I’d be happy to see both succeed.

This.

Nice flight, Spacex might have some competition.
Now if they had a reusable 2nd stage.... and could return to launch site minus the ship that would be even better... impressive result for 2nd ever flight.

Oh Japan and china have their versions.

behind space-x, but far from irrelevant. Uncle Sam is not going to be satisfied with a single contractor to get to space. With the demise of ULA, then Blue Origin might be just the ticket for the 2nd option.

Rather than comparing them to space-x, pit them against formerly dominant players who have stood in place and become truly irrelevant, like Roscosmos or Arianespace.

Did it anchor itself to the deck with some sort of explosive charge? Something that drove a spike or welded it self to the deck?

You can see some sort of charge going off on each gear leg in sequence after it had landed about 25 seconds after touchdown.

I wonder if this is some sort of anchoring system to prevent tip over. The NG legs are small compared to Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 has had loss of boosters from tip over.

Mike C.

Saw a comment elsewhere that the flashes were the rocket welding itself to the ship so yes!

That's pretty clever!

Billionaire boys and their space toys.

It is exciting to see what can be done.

Mike C.

This was apparently a Mars mission, not a test flight.
https://apnews.com/video/blue-origin-la ... c55fc686f8

Correct.

The mission was to launch the Escapade spacecraft pair which will study the Martian magnetosphere, or what’s left of it. A secondary mission was testing of a Viasat device on the first stage. The flight and barge landing of the booster were at most tertiary.

They nailed all of them.

Agreed....well done and very risky at that.