Blue Origin delays first launch of New Glenn to late 2022

Senior VP Jarrett Jones said the schedule had to be pushed back following the Space Force decision to not select New Glenn as a national security launch provider. WASHINGTON — Blue Origin is pushing back the first launch of its New Glenn rocket to late 2022, saying it “re-baselined” the development of the launch vehicle after losing a key Pentagon contract last year. Blue Origin announced Feb. 25 that it has set a new target in the fourth quarter of 2022 for the first launch of the rocket from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company originally targeted New Glenn’s inaugural launch for 2020, but by early 2020 had delayed it to late 2021. Jarrett Jones, Blue Origin’s senior vice president for New Glenn, told SpaceNews that the schedule had to be pushed back for technical and financial reasons following the Space Force decision in August to not select New Glenn for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement. “That was a big hit for us,” Jones said. “We had to consider the economics.” Blue Origin lost out to United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, who were selected as national security space launch providers from 2022 to 2027. Not being selected cost Blue Origin billions of dollars, he argued. Blue Origin in October 2018 won a $500 million Launch Service Agreement deal with the Air Force but the LSA was terminated in December 2020 after Blue Origin received just $255.5 million. Blue Origin estimated that not winning the five-year procurement contract cost the company up to $3 billion in revenue, Jones said. 

Aerial view of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket factory at Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

Credit: Blue Origin

Despite the setback, “New Glenn is moving forward,” he said. “It was never a consideration” to not continue developing the vehicle for commercial and civil space customers. “Blue Origin remains committed to New Glenn, and we have the resources aligned to meet our plans.”

New Glenn will be ready to compete again for NSSL Phase 3 when the next contract goes up for bidding in 2024, said Jones. “We hope to launch NSSL payloads in the future, and remain committed to serving the U.S. national defense mission.”

After the loss of the Phase 2 contract, Blue Origin “re-baselined” the New Glenn timeline and development plan, Jones said. “We looked at everything that was on the table, including funding and customers, and we put together a high-probability schedule where we put all of our resources and spread out the necessary funding we needed.”

He cited several developments on the critical path for New Glenn to meet that new launch date, from production of the large propellant tanks for the rocket to radiation testing of its avionics. “I worry about everything,” he said.

The company has completed a qualification version of the seven-meter payload fairing for the rocket, along with a payload adapter, which will be tested later this year at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. Blue Origin has a first stage simulator in its Florida factory that some observers caught a glimpse of earlier this month. “Within the next couple of weeks, people will start to see that roll around,” Jones said.

The company is also completing new facilities at LC-36, a former Atlas launch pad that Blue Origin took over in 2015. Major construction at the pad is now wrapping up, with system activation and checkouts starting. “The expectation is that next year it will be commissioned,” he said.

That pad alone cost the company $1 billion, part of $2.5 billion in overall investment by Blue Origin in facilities such as the New Glenn factory just outside the gates of the Kennedy Space Center and an engine factory the company completed a year ago in Huntsville, Alabama.

Jones said Blue Origin intends to deliver flight qualified BE-4 engines to United Launch Alliance on time for ULA’s planned maiden launch of its Vulcan rocket late this year. “We’re hot firing regularly and every time you turn around, we’re doing additional tests,” he said. “We have over 11,000 seconds of accumulated test time and we feel confident.”

New Glenn will fulfill its current commercial New Glenn contracts and pursue new civil space launch contracts. The company has previously announced launch contracts with Eutelsat, Mu Space, OneWeb, Sky Perfect JSAT and Telesat, and Jones said the company discussed the revised development schedules with them. “We are still meeting their needs,” he said. “No one is surprised by today’s announcement.”

Blue Origin also intends to position New Glenn to compete with SpaceX in the rideshare market for small satellite launches. “That’s a really big opportunity for us,” said Jones. “We’re doing the development work now to look at the different adapters we need to have for different satellite sizes and for reconfigurable satellites.”

China assembling rocket to launch first space station module

The Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket to launch China’s first space station module is soon to be assembled at Wenchang for launch in April. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) stated Thursday that the Long March 5B was headed for Wenchang, citing a Feb. 16 press release from the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO). The 849-metric-ton Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket will launch the roughly 22-metric-ton Tianhe core module from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center following delivery, assembly, integration and testing. Ship tracking indicates that the Xu Yang 16 cargo ship traveled from Tianjin, the northern city in which the Long March 5B components are manufactured, arriving at Qinglan harbor Feb. 16. The vessel is apparently being used instead of the dedicated Yuanwang-21 and -22 cargo ships. China has not announced a timeframe for the mission. However previous Long March 5-series rocket launch campaigns have lasted around two months, indicating launch can be expected around mid-to-late April. The 16.6-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter Tianhe core module has already been delivered to Wenchang ready for launch preparations. Tianhe, meaning “harmony of the heavens”, is planned to be inserted directly into a low Earth orbit with an apogee of around 370 kilometers and inclined by 41 degrees.

Components of the Long March 5B (Y2) to launch the Chinese space station core module at a facility in Tianjin. Credit: CMSA

The module will provide regenerative life support and living space for three astronauts as well as propulsion to maintain the orbit of the entire complex.

China plans to construct its space station through 11 launches carried out across 2021 and 2022. These consist of three module launches, four Tianzhou cargo missions and four crewed flights.

The Tianhe core module and docking hub of the Chinese Space Station. Credit: CMSA

Launch of Tianhe is to be followed by a Long March 7 launch of the Tianzhou-2 cargo vessel to dock with, fuel and supply Tianhe. The Long March 7 is also in the final stages of preparation.

The first crewed mission, Shenzhou-12, will then launch from Jiuqun via a Long March 2F hypergolic rocket. CMSEO stated Feb. 16 that the selected crew have entered the intensive training phase ahead of the mission.

CASC states that the 12th and 13th Long March 2F rockets for launching the Shenzhou-12 and Shenzhou-13 missions are ready for action. This suggests two crewed missions in 2021, the first likely during the first half of the year.

The launch of Tianhe will mark the construction phase of the three-module low Earth orbit Chinese space station, a project approved in 1992 as part of a human spaceflight program.

Starting in 2003 China has launched six crewed missions and two testbed space laboratories in order to develop and verify a range of technologies and capabilities for the project.

The most recent was the 2016 month-long Shenzhou-11 mission to Tiangong-2 space lab. The latter was deorbited in 2018, avoiding a repeat of the uncontrolled Tiangong-1 reentry scenario.

In April 2020 carried out a test launch of the Long March 5B, debuting a prototype new generation crew spacecraft for deep space. The new, uncrewed craft was loaded with propellant to simulate a payload similar in mass to a space station module.

Notably the rocket’s large core stage reached orbital velocity and subsequently made an uncontrolled reentry off the west coast of Africa days later. A similar event can thus be expected for the launch of Tianhe and later experiment modules.

The launch of the Tianhe core module was delayed by the 2017 launch failure of the second Long March 5, postponing test launch of the Long March 5B. China is now condensing the space station construction schedule into an intensive two-year period, maintaining the target of completing the Chinese Space Station by the end of 2022.

After completion the CSS will be joined in orbit by the Xuntian optical module, a co-orbiting, Hubble-class space telescope. Xuntian will be capable of docking with the CSS for maintenance and repairs. The space station itself could also be expanded from three to six modules.

CASC is planning to carry out at least 40 launches in what would be a busiest year yet for China. The landing attempt of the Tianwen-1 Mars rover is expected in May-June, amid the Tianhe, Tianzhou and Shenzhou launches.

YOUNG STAR, ORBITING EXOPLANETS DISCOVERED IN A 'RIVER OF STARS' USING TESS, SPITZER DATA

Astronomers have spotted a young star called TOI 451 that has three hot planets in orbit around it. The astronomers spotted the sun using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The young star has a lot in common with our sun, according a NASA statement of the discovery. However, considering our sun's age is roughly 4.6 billion years old, the star TOI 451 is relatively younger, at 120 million years old. The newly-discovered star could further the current understanding of how the solar system formed. The TOI 451 star is 95 percent the mass of the sun, 12 percent smaller, and emits only two-third the energy. All three planets that orbit TOI 451 sit very close to the star, according to the statement. This means that the planets are hot, with temperatures ranging from 2,200 °F (innermost planet) to 840 °F (outermost). The system also has a pair of companion stars that orbit far beyond the planets. The three planets and TOI 451 reside in a "river of stars" known as the Pisces-Eridanus stream which was discovered recently. The stream is 1,300 light-years long that covers one-third of the sky and is made up of stars that are less than 3 percent of the age of the universe.

The TOI 451 system. Image: NASA

Researchers had originally thought that the stream was old, as young stars can have dark spots like sunspots which cause fluctuations in their brightness. However, a closer look at the stream using the TESS observatory, researchers could observe that the stream was actually made up of very young stars that spin quickly.

Yellow dots show the locations of known or suspected members, with TOI 451 circled. Image: NASA

The planets discovered make for an excellent point of observation for telescopes as they develop, with tools like the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope that can detect whether an exoplanet has an atmosphere.

Supercomputer turns back cosmic clock

Astronomers have tested a method for reconstructing the state of the early universe by applying it to 4000 simulated universes using the ATERUI II supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). They found that together with new observations, the method can set better constraints on inflation, one of the most enigmatic events in the history of the universe. The method can shorten the observation time required to distinguish between various inflation theories. Just after the universe came into existence 13.8 billion years ago, it suddenly increased more than 1 trillion trillion times in size in less than a trillionth of a trillionth of a microsecond, but no one knows how or why. This sudden inflation is one of the most important mysteries in modern astronomy. Inflation should have created primordial density fluctuations that would have affected the distribution of galaxy development. Thus, mapping the distribution of galaxies can rule out models for inflation that don't match the observed data. However, processes other than inflation also impact galaxy distribution, making it difficult to derive information about inflation directly from observations of the large-scale structure of the universe, the cosmic web comprising countless galaxies. In particular, the gravitationally driven growth of groups of galaxies can obscure the primordial density fluctuations. A research team led by Masato Shirasaki, an assistant professor at NAOJ and the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, applied a reconstruction method to turn back the clock and remove gravitational effects from the large-scale structure. They used ATERUI II, the world's fastest supercomputer dedicated to astronomy simulations, to create 4000 simulated universes and evolve them through gravitationally driven growth. They then applied this method to see how well it reconstructed the starting state of the simulations. The team found that their method can correct for the gravitational effects and improve the constraints on primordial density fluctuations.

"We found that this method is very effective," says Shirasaki. "Using this method, we can verify inflation theories with roughly one-tenth the amount of data. This method can shorten the required observing time in upcoming galaxy survey missions such as SuMIRe by NAOJ's Subaru Telescope."

These results appeared as Masato Shirasaki et. al. "Constraining Primordial Non-Gaussianity with Post-reconstructed Galaxy Bispectrum in Redshift Space," in Physical Review D on January 4, 2021.

China's Yutu 2 rover finds 'milestone' on far side of the moon

China's Chang'e 4 spacecraft are back in action for a 27th lunar day on the far side of the moon, but it's the discoveries from the mission's previous lunar day that have scientists excited. The Chang'e 4 lander and Yutu 2 rover resumed activities on Feb. 6 after hibernating during the severe cold of lunar night, according to the Chinese state-run media outlet Xinhua. But one lunar day earlier the rover came across a curious rock specimen which the Yutu 2 drive team began to refer to as a "milestone." According to a Yutu 2 diary published by Our Space, the Chinese language science outreach channel affiliated with the China National Space Administration (CNSA), mission scientists agreed with the drive team that the elongated rock was worth closer inspection. The team then planned to do a close approach and analyze the rock with Yutu 2's Visible and Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS) instrument, which detects light that is scattered or reflected off materials to reveal their makeup. VNIS has been used to investigate a number of rocks and regolith samples along Yutu 2's path across Von Kármán crater. These include unusual melt glass specimens and potentially material from the lunar mantle. While not looking particularly exciting to the untrained eye, the find has generated interest among lunar scientists. "It seems to have a shard-like shape and is sticking out of the ground. That's definitely unusual," Dan Moriarty, NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told Space.com.

This photo taken by China's Yutu 2 moon rover shows the elongated "milestone" rock on the lunar surface.

(Image: © CNSA)

"Repeated impacts, stresses from thermal cycling, and other forms of weathering on the lunar surface would all tend to break down rocks into more-or-less 'spherical' shapes, given enough time," Moriarty said. "Think of how rocky beaches wear down stones to smooth, round shapes over time by repeated jostling in the waves."

Moriarty said both the shard-like shape and that pronounced "ridge" running near the edge of the rock seem to indicate that this rock is geologically young, and was emplaced relatively recently.

"Milestone" rock, China's Yutu 2 rover image

"I would definitely guess an origin as impact ejecta from some nearby crater. It is possible that a rock with this aspect ratio could have been produced by a process known as spallation, where intact fragments of rock are blown off the nearby surface without experiencing the same degree of shock pressures that the immediate target undergoes," Moriarty said, adding that this initial assessment is just a guess.

Followup detections and data from VNIS will provide much greater insight. Clive Neal, a leading lunar expert at the University of Notre Dame, agrees that, based on the images, the specimens are impact ejecta rather than exposed bedrocks. "The question I have is are they locally derived? Hopefully the spectral data will allow an evaluation of the origin as local or exotic, that is, from outside this area," he said.

Yutu 2 and the Chang'e 4 lander have already greatly exceeded their design lifetimes of 90 Earth days and one year, respectively. The rover has covered a total of 2,060 feet (628 meters) since its deployment from the lander on Jan. 3, 2019.


In November last year China launched its Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission. The mission resulted in 3.81 lbs. (1.73 kilograms) of fresh moon samples being delivered to Earth just over three weeks later. CNSA last month published procedures for requesting samples for scientific analysis.