New Glenn

[89th]

You may have seen the New Glenn 2 landed its first stage on a barge (heavy rocket, bigger than the falcon 9 that we normally see land on a barge).

I really like the Everyday Astronaut YouTube channel. Great launch coverage and other content that total Astro-n00b dudes like myself enjoy.

Here’s a clip of a New Glenn factory tour (dare I say Jeff Bezos is actually…nerdy yet personable???) from a year ago, and then coverage of the launch/landing.

Link to video

Link to video

[89th]

I’m only about 20 minutes into that first video with Jeff Bezos, it is actually remarkable his knowledge of all the details.

[89th]

For context of how big the rocket is that they landed. If you watch the first video, I posted above as Jeff Bezos explains everything, it is really, really, really fascinating. At least if you’re into space flight stuff.

[89th]

Here’s the 2nd part of that first video. The launch pad. It is really mind blowing, the size and scale. Even the propellant tubes that are along the midsection, have to be able to be flexible based on the pressure… imagine telling an engineer that they need to design proponent tubes for 300 feet, but also maybe 320 feet. Just insane. All of it!

Link to video

[89th]

Welp, it blew up during a test fire today. Massive explosion. Hard to fathom how many people worked hard on that, now they have to rebuild the launch pad too, this probably will push Artemis III back a bit, too.

[89th]

Happens exactly at the 9:00:00 mark (time at the top). A good reminder of why tests are important.

Link to video

[jon-nyc]

[89th]

Dare I say a beautiful mushroom cloud? If you haven't been there on a tour, imagine the scaffolding of the Statue of Liberty, except blown up now. There are a number of launch complexes, but this one (36) is one of the bigger ones and has been used IIRC by New Glenn for their massive rocket launches (only beat by Starship and Artemis).

[jon-nyc]

Yes you may say mushroom cloud.

[89th]

Not that I care, but that video I posted earlier of the tour of their launch pad... I really enjoyed watching it and learning all about it, and MAN that puts the destruction in context about what was lost.