Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket goes vertical on the launch pad

Blue Origin continued to prep for the maiden flight of its massive New Glenn rocket as it went vertical on the launch pad Thursday ahead of an upcoming hot fire test needed before a launch attempt that is targeting before the end of the year.

“Up we go!” The steel launch table that New Glenn sits on weighs 1.7 million pounds (roughly 726 metric tons), including the clamps that connect to the vehicle’s aft ring,” the company posted on social media after the rocket was lifted into a vertical position at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 36.

The integrated first and second stage of the rocket were made earlier this month and made the trip from the integration facility to the pad overnight Wednesday.

“Another step towards launch,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp wrote on X. “The transport and lift operation relies on our Transporter Erector or TE, a structure that’s almost 300 feet long and 50 feet wide and weighs more than 4 million pounds.”

The two stages make up the majority of what will eventually be a 322-foot-tall rocket when its fairing and payload are in place.

The first launch had been targeting November, but recently the company changed its forecast language to simply say before the end of the year.

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company is using the first flight of New Glenn to fly up and test the company’s Blue Ring hardware, which is used to deliver payloads to their proper place in orbit once deployed. It will also be the first of two required flights to get certification by the Space Force to fly national security missions.

The company also plans to attempt to land the first stage after launch, similar to how SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage rockets land, on a recovery vessel downrange in the Atlantic.

New Glenn boosters, which are powered by seven of the company’s BE-4 engines, produce up to 3.9 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. They are designed for up to 25 reflights.

The rocket stages are fabricated at Blue Origin’s factory in Merritt Island adjacent the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, and then are transported over to the launch site.

Blue Origin took over the lease for LC-36 in 2015. It had previously been used for government launches from 1962–2005, including lunar lander Surveyor 1 in 1967 and some of the Mariner probes. Bezos has invested more than $1 billion alone to get SLC-36 up and running for the launches.

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