Start the countdown clock: Blue Origin crews hope to launch the first New Glenn two-stage rocket on its maiden mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Friday morning!
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ private space company is targeting a three-hour launch window, stretching from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Friday. At over 300 feet tall (bigger than a football field), the heavy New Glenn will take off from Launch Complex 36, within easy reach of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach.
After flying toward the sky along an eastward trajectory, the white-blue rocket’s first stage will aim for landing aboard Blue Origin’s Jacklyn drone ship — so named after Bezos’ mother — in the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean. Blue Origin officials named the booster So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance because “no one has landed a reusable booster on the first try,” CEO Dave Limp said in a September tweet.
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Check back for live FLORIDA TODAY Space Team launch coverage updates on this page, starting about two hours before the New Glenn launch window opens early Friday morning.
Later Friday morning, look for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch on another Starlink mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, according to an advisory on the Federal Aviation Administration’s operations plan. That start window runs from 10:27 a.m. to 2:58 p.m
Blue origin: ‘Incredible piece of machinery’: Former NASA chief looks forward to the launch of Blue Origin New Glenn
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Visit floridatoday.com/space for the latest news and launch schedules from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
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Rick Neale is a space reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Blue Origin overnight launch: What you need to know before the launch from the Cape