Blue Ring Pathfinder launch thread (maiden flight of New Glenn, take 2)

Well folks, time for another go at Blue Origin's first orbital launch attempt!

Blue Origin stood down from a launch attempt earlier this week due to ice forming in a purge line on an auxiliary power unit.

Scheduled for UTC	2025-01-16 07:03
Scheduled for (local)	2025-01-16 02:03 (EST)
Launch site	LC-36, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA
Launch provider	Blue Origin
Launch vehicle	New Glenn (GS1-SN001)
Landing	Jacklyn droneship
Payload	DarkSky-1 Blue Ring Pathfinder
Mission success criteria	Successful insertion of New Glenn upper stage and payload into Medium Earth Orbit
Bonus goal	Landing of booster on droneship

Livestreams

Stream	Link
Blue Origin	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXysNxbGdCg
NASASpaceflight	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hmOwYOO1G4
Spaceflight Now	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-27UPcCiH08
Space Affairs	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7oyvhGApv0
The Launch Pad	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF6SoKX1VGU
Everyday Astronaut	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqW1OjVepCk
Joe Barnard	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IB4eV2vR1U

Stats

1st New Glenn mission
1st orbital launch attempt for Blue Origin
1st Blue Origin launch of 2025, 29th launch overall

Mission info

Maiden flight of the New Glenn launch vehicle. Will carry the prototype DarkSky-1 Blue Ring Pathfinder, consisting of communications array, power systems, and a flight computer affixed to a secondary payload adapter ring, remaining attached to the 2nd stage. This launch will serve as New Glenn's first National Security Space Launch certification flight.

Previous mission (NS-28) | Next mission (NS-29)

Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here! Also feel free to leave feedback or suggestions for the mod team. We welcome feedback from the community!

27 comments

Loss of booster confirmed.

SECO confirmed! New Glenn upper stage is in orbit!
Edit: https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879806562774204531
GS2 and our Blue Ring Pathfinder achieved their final target orbit.

Stage 1 entry burn startup confirmed. (or "exoatmospheric engine ignition", as Blue Origin call it)
Edit: Booster telemetry is no longer updating on-screen...

I think there's an interesting comms lesson in how universally grumpy the space enthusiast community is after the clock shenanigans the other day.
There's nothing inherently wrong with that clock style, but it seems to have totally demoralized way more people than a typical scrub does.
I don't think it's as simple as "this is different than SpaceX". My theory is that we feel like Blue was toying with our enthusiasm, and it's a weird "I am being taken advantage of" instinct.
Ultimately this doesn't matter - Blue is a rocket company, not a science communicator. But perhaps there's a lesson for the rest of us as we build science communities.
(I'm bored waiting for this launch)
- Perhaps there's a lesson for Blue Origin as well. This time they seem to be waiting until they are under T-20 minutes before going live with a hosted webcast.
  
  Yeah, I'm very impressed by how much they've improved since Monday. Maybe they can do rapid iteration afterall :P

Liftoff!
- Very, very slow liftoff. I thought there was something wrong.
  
  Yeah, they might have dialed down the power, but it's not like the BE-4 engines never launched before. Regardless, it made it up safe and deployed succesfully, so whatever they did worked.
  
  Yeah, it really crawled off the pad. Thrust-to-weight-ratio can't have been much more than 1.2 or so.

MECO, stage separation, and upper stage ignition, and payload fairing jettison confirmed!

Max-Q

NSF are live.
Countdown clock at KSC is holding at T-20:50.

Go no-go poll is complete, they are go for launch!
https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879784681153220795
The readiness poll is complete. New Glenn is GO for launch and proceeding to terminal count.

Stage 1 apogee.

Countdown clock is holding at T-11:03, awaiting results of the go no-go poll.
Edit: Looks like the range was no-go.
It's a wayward boat: https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879777385912115432
Entering unplanned hold due to range red for a wayward boat. New T-0 forthcoming.
Well, at least it's not an issue with the rocket this time!

That looked impressively clean! I hope we get high-res onboard footage soon.

New T-0: https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879777924058120218
New Glenn’s new T-0 is 2:03 a.m. EST (0703 UTC).

~20 tons to orbit safe and sound on the first try!
- The Blue Ring pathfinder weighs 20 tons‽ It looked so small in the fairing...
  
  No, it IS tiny, but it's part of a payload simulator, according to this. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/blue-origin-first-new-glenn-rocket-launch-what-time
  20 tons of steel is "only" a cube slightly under 1.5m per side. It's not very big at all, especially in a 7m fairing.

New T-0 of 2025-01-16 06:35 UTC, 01:35 local.

https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879710233205105148
Propellant loading is underway.

https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879774003835129964
BE-4s chilling in and ready to fly. Weather is green. New Glenn’s new T-0 is 1:35 a.m. EST (0635 UTC).
Blue Origin are live.

Propellant load is complete, countdown clock is proceeding:
https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879754108485419505
New Glenn is fully fueled for its inaugural mission carrying our Blue Ring Pathfinder.
https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1879758211387105319
The NG-1 countdown clock is proceeding. The three-hour launch window opens at 1 a.m. EST (0600 UTC).

It's sad the booster was lost. Press F to pay respects.
- F

27 comments