WASHINGTON — Blue Origin says it is working with the government to secure additional launch opportunities for the upcoming New Glenn launch of a NASA Mars mission, given new restrictions placed on commercial launches by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The launch of NASA’s ESCAPADE mission on New Glenn is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. Eastern Nov. 9 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. At a Nov. 8 online briefing, Blue Origin said it had completed a launch readiness review that day clearing the way for the attempt. There is a 65% chance of acceptable weather for launch.
If the launch does not take place that day, a backup opportunity is available Nov. 10 at 2:40 p.m. Eastern. However, that attempt currently would not be allowed under an FAA order issued Nov. 6 that restricts commercial launches to between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. to reduce impacts on the National Airspace System.
A lengthy government shutdown that began Oct. 1 has strained air traffic management as controllers, unpaid for more than a month, have increasingly failed to report to work. The FAA order takes effect the morning of Nov. 10.
Blue Origin said in a Nov. 7 statement that it is seeking an exemption from that order. “We have been working closely with the FAA to ensure that New Glenn’s upcoming launch of the ESCAPADE mission to Mars can proceed,” the company said. “We will continue to work with the FAA to maintain the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System.”
Laura Maginnis, vice president of New Glenn mission management at Blue Origin, said at the briefing that discussions with the FAA and NASA are ongoing.
“We are working very closely with both our partners at the FAA and with the NASA team to ensure that, of course, we’re honoring and respecting the airspace expectations there and the safety requirements, while at the same time meeting the objectives that NASA and Blue Origin have for this mission,” she said.
“We’re working closely with them on opportunities for exceptions, et cetera, to the policy based on how our mission goes tomorrow,” she added.
Later in the briefing, Maginnis said the company was working with NASA and the FAA “on launching as soon as possible” should the vehicle not lift off on Nov. 9. Those discussions, she said, are moving through “the appropriate government channels.”
The launch, called NG-2 by Blue Origin, is one of several FAA-licensed commercial launches that could be affected by the order in the coming days. A Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites, originally planned for a four-hour window opening at 5:12 p.m. Eastern Nov. 10, has been delayed to no earlier than 10 p.m. Eastern that day, according to SpaceX’s website.
Another Falcon 9 mission, the Transporter-15 rideshare flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, has also been delayed from Nov. 11, according to some customers. The mission’s orbital requirements prevent it from being rescheduled for a later time that same day.
When it launches, NG-2 will send the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft toward the Earth-sun L2 Lagrange point, where they will loiter for about a year before heading to Mars. The probes are scheduled to arrive in 2027 to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Martian magnetosphere and atmosphere.
Immediately after the ESCAPADE spacecraft separate from the upper stage, 33 minutes after liftoff, Blue Origin will activate a secondary payload attached to the upper stage. That payload, from Viasat, will test communications technologies as part of NASA’s Communications Services Project, which aims to shift from NASA-run relay systems to commercial networks.
Maginnis declined to say how long the Viasat payload will operate but said the overall NG-2 mission will conclude about one hour and 40 minutes after liftoff, with the upper stage entering a heliocentric disposal orbit.
This will be the first New Glenn launch since its inaugural mission in January. That flight reached orbit, although the first stage failed to land on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean because of an engine relight issue.
“We’ve incorporated a number of changes to our propellant management system, some minor hardware changes as well, to increase our likelihood of landing that booster on this mission,” Maginnis said.
There were no other major changes to New Glenn from the first flight. “We really didn’t have a lot of findings from the first mission,” she said. “We were very, very pleased with how the rocket performed for us on the first launch, so we’re looking forward to another one here this week.”