Good morning, friends, it’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero keeping you updated on the big new rocket that still hasn’t taken off just yet.
Despite all the anticipation since Blue Origin received its launch license for New Glenn’s first flight, when I checked the launch pad this morning from the Washington Street beach access in Cape Canaveral, the rocket still wasn’t upright again at the pad.
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We know after the hot fire test the other week that all they had left to do was mate the payload (Blue Origin’s own Blue Ring spacecraft) inside the launch pad’s integration building and roll back out to go vertical again.
With no rocket in sight, clearly, they weren’t quite ready for this morning’s launch window which, according to the FAA, would have opened at 1 a.m.
Now all eyes are on the next possible window which is Wednesday. Keep in my mind, first, Blue Origin has to confirm the launch date, and they haven’t posted any new updates since Dec. 27.
Over the last two weeks, I wondered if they could still launch by New Year’s or possibly be the first launch of 2025. SpaceX, of course, has already got the Space Coast on the board for what could be the first triple-digit year-end total for launches.
If Blue does launch soon, we can expect New Glenn to fly later this year, as well.
Not only will it be the first flight of a new reusable rocket, it will be their first orbital flight (the New Shepard rocket is suborbital) since Jeff Bezos started the company 25 years ago!
My colleague Erik von Ancken is working on another report leading up to launch that you can watch today on News 6 and ClickOrlando.com.
📧 Do you have any specific space topics you’d like to discuss? Send me an email here.
👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!
