> Got a preview this morning of some new National Air and Space Museum exhibits opening July 1. The return of some old favorites (Skylab, Hubble) and some new items (New Shepard booster, GAMBIT-1 spysat.)
Link: https://x.com/blueorigin/status/2069146585787781276
>Continuous sunlight is scarce on the Moon unless you know where to look. 🌑
>The lunar poles contain "peaks of eternal light," areas bathed in near-continuous sunlight. Power Tower mounts on Blue Moon MK1's top deck and extends solar arrays to 26 meters total height to capture that energy and deliver sustained power for Moon Base operations.
>Check out this video of Power Tower during a successful deployment in an analog lunar environment.
>The infrastructure era of lunar exploration starts now.
> In addition to SpaceX, Blue Origin is also growing its launch activity at Kennedy and CCSFS. Blue Origin occupies Space Launch Complex 36 at CCSFS, which can support 30 to 35 launches a year. Though the company is currently approved for 12 launches a year, Blue Origin officials expect launches of the New Glenn launch vehicle to exceed 50 per year by 2030 and more than 120 per year by 2035. Other commercial partners increasing their launch activity from Kennedy and CCSFS include United Launch Alliance, Relativity Space, and Astra Space.
> To address Blue Origin’s need for additional launch pads, they approached Kennedy officials about exploring launch pad options on NASA property. However, space for additional launch pads at Kennedy is also limited and may require extensive time and resources to develop a launch pad that can support super heavy-lift launch vehicles. While Kennedy officials identified a potential location north of LC 39A and LC 39B for a new super heavy-lift launch pad, the area is a protected wetland and would have to undergo lengthy and extensive federal and local review and approval processes.
> Kennedy’s common use infrastructure for the provision of GN2 currently cannot support high-flow operations from multiple users. Limitations with the system’s pumps, vaporizers, and storage tanks limit flow rates and restrict the number of launch vehicles that can be supported concurrently. For example, Kennedy will be unable to provide GN2 for future Space Launch System launches for Artemis from LC 39B while simultaneously supporting Blue Origin's New Glenn launch vehicle launching from Space Launch Complex 36 at CCSFS. Likewise, the GN2 system cannot simultaneously support launches at CCSFS of Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch vehicle at Space Launch Complex 36 and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle at Space Launch Complex 41.
> Blue Origin officials stated this issue created a major scheduling challenge during preparation for the New Glenn-1 mission that launched in January 2025, and further expressed concern that during future Space Launch System launches there could be 1- to 2-month blackout periods from the pipeline. Kennedy has proposed the construction of a new GN2 system to supplement the current capability during outages, maintenance, and multi-user high flow events. The project would install a liquid nitrogen storage tank, pumps, vaporizers, and a control system to operate the GN2 system. However, the project is estimated to cost up to $25 million and is currently unfunded.
> Similar to the GN2 infrastructure, Kennedy and commercial partner officials have stated the volume of GHe produced at the Converter Compressor Facility is insufficient to simultaneously support multiple users. To support Artemis launches, in January 2026, Kennedy completed an $11.1 million Construction of Facilities (CoF) project that installed six new GHe pumps in the Converter Compressor Facility. The additional pumps provide redundancy in the GHe system and triple the amount of GHe flowing into the pipelines that support launch pads across Kennedy and CCSFS. Once GHe is in the pipeline, however, the entire pipeline is pressurized to a uniform pressure. Therefore, Kennedy is unable to support multiple simultaneous launch vehicles that have different GHe pressure requirements. This issue is more challenging in launch scenarios involving Blue Origin as the GHe pressure requirement for New Glenn is lower than the pressure provided by Kennedy’s GHe pipeline as well as what is typically needed by other companies and NASA. According to a Kennedy official, the Agency would ideally provide GHe at a uniform pressure to all launch pads. If lower pressure is needed, commercial partners would be responsible for operating control valves within their launch pads that would regulate GHe to the required pressure. However, the equipment needed to regulate GHe to individual pressure requirements is not currently installed, and it is yet to be determined whether NASA or commercial partners would be required to fund the upgrade.
> Bridges at Kennedy face similar challenges. All bridges serving Kennedy, except for the newly constructed Indian River Bridge, are close to the end of their design life and require increasing resources to support operations and maintenance activities. In addition, many of the bridges were not designed to support the size, weight, and frequency of current and projected heavy transport operations. For example, NASA owns and maintains the Banana River Bridge, which is the main conduit of traffic between Kennedy and CCSFS. The bridge was constructed in the 1960s and has exceeded its design life. NASA plans to repair the bridge over the next several years to restore its load bearing capacity; however, the project has not been approved or fully funded. A number of minor repairs to the bridge, each costing approximately $1 million, have been performed. While these repairs are intended to address structural concerns in the near term, they will not resolve the bridge’s underlying design limitations.
> Kennedy officials stated that the bridge’s steep grade and limited width make it unsuitable for current and future NASA and commercial partner requirements, including the transport of larger launch vehicles such as Blue Origin’s New Glenn. As a result, Kennedy officials indicated that full replacement of the bridge will ultimately be necessary to meet operational requirements. Until such replacement occurs, oversized transports, such as New Glenn, will need to be routed along a 20-mile detour, risking mission impacts, including potential launch delays.
>Five 650 construction crane to be used from June 15, 2026 to Dec 31, 2027 violating the Inner Horizontal Surface (IHS). The temporary cranes will be a 600 ton crane needed to reconstruct launch complex 37 following a catastrophic anomaly. The cranes will operate from 250 ft and not exceed the max boom height of 650 ft and will not create a violation to the IHS and conical surface. The structures being constructed will include a 574 ft lightning protection tower that will create a violation to the IHS covered in a permanent waiver.
As noted when this was originally submitted for approval, this may be intended to cover both the rebuild of LC-36A and the construction of LC-36B.
This is the payload processing facility that Blue Origin won a $78M grant to build, on the site of former LC-19.
The USSF released an RFI in December for a new superheavy rocket to launch from LC-46, located near Blue Origin's LC-36. This was contingent on existing operations (missile tests, etc.) being relocated to a new site. That new site has now been proposed, which opens the door for a new tenant to move in at LC-46.
Given the close proximity of LC-46 to LC-36, Starship may not be suitable. The RFI includes a clause for limiting adverse effects to existing launch operations. This would mean Blue Origin themselves could be an option for this pad. If there are any other credible providers capable of fielding a superheavy vehicle in the next 5 years, they have not made their ambitions known.
Speaking at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 17, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and its chief executive, Dave Limp, said they were making good progress on returning New Glenn to flight after a May 28 explosion during a static-fire test at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36.
Limp said the company was able to call in a construction crew “just down the road” with 400 pieces of heavy equipment to work on cleaning up the pad. “The pad has been cleared of all debris. It’s amazing how quickly that's happened,” he said.
“Just yesterday we started the reconstruction” of the pad, he said. “We’re going to fly this year.”
“We’ll fly before the end of the year,” Bezos added.
The prospect of New Glenn being out of service for an extended time led NASA to consider “decoupling” Blue Moon from its New Glenn launcher.
Limp suggested that decoupling will not be necessary. “Just next year, early in the year, we’ll fly our Mark 1 lander,” he said, a reference to the robotic Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander that will fly a mission NASA designated “Moon Base 1” last month.
Video is truncated to first 15 minutes. Full video here: https://x.com/davill/status/2067253530092605898#m
(Bloomberg) -- Blue Origin is already rebuilding the Florida launch site where its New Glenn rocket exploded last month, making way for the space company to fly again this year and rejuvenate its ambitions to challenge SpaceX.
Some of the launch infrastructure, including propellant tanks and a booster in the integration facility, weren’t damaged by the explosion, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com Inc. founder who also started the rocket company, said during a Paris tech conference Wednesday. The blast was so destructive it generated seismic waves.
New Glenn, which is key to Blue Origin’s plans for space exploration, is years behind schedule and has faced longer-than-expected waiting periods between flights. Chief Executive Officer Dave Limp said the launchpad has been cleared of all debris.
“Just yesterday we started the reconstruction,” Limp said during an on-stage discussion at the VivaTech gathering. “We’re going to fly this year.”
New Glenn is set to play a key role in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send humans back to the moon. NASA has awarded Blue Origin a lucrative contract to land rovers on the lunar surface.
“That was a rough moment,” Bezos said when asked about the explosion. “It was a gut punch for the whole team.”
Looks like we're going to see the structure go up soon.
Link: https://x.com/sourceryy/status/2065968966875689258
Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston expects SpaceX to have a "near monopoly on launch" for the next 5–10 years:
"Starship is way ahead of any other program."
"The manufacturing that they're ramping up is insane—like building three Starships per day potentially with their gigafactories."
"The problem with Blue Origin's rocket is, they don't have a reusable upper stage. As I understand, they're not even really trying to build a reusable upper stage."
"The way they talk about pricing is they say, 'We will be as good as the next best price from Falcon 9.'"
"Which, for people who don't know, the next best price from Falcon 9 is like 5x the price of Falcon 9."
Similar to ULA. Considering the hurdles Amazon facing during their initial launch plans and thinking that these projects would probably take decades and needs constant replenishing, would they ask for a dedicated infrastructure(or dedicated boosters, barges etc) for Amazon Leo from Blue Origin? Maybe not today but in the future? What do you think? Let the theories flow.