Kevin Kiley: “I would like to congratulate Blue Origin on successfully reaching orbit in the first flight of its New Glenn rocket. New…”

“I would like to congratulate Blue Origin on successfully reaching orbit in the first flight of its New Glenn rocket. New Glenn is a 320-foot rocket that is taller than the Statute of Liberty. It has 7 engines, and it can carry 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit. According to a report from Blue Origin, in the flight that left at, I believe, 2:03 a.m. this morning, the first stage burned for more than 3 minutes before the second stage separated at an altitude of 70 kilometers. Then the report states the upper stage's two engines appeared to perform flawlessly, pushing what is called the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload toward orbit. This is an apparatus that is going to allow for the adjustment of other payloads that are in orbit and bring them into different orbits, adjusted orbits, from using that device. Apparently, it is now working properly and is registering data. So far so good is the report. It goes on to state that the engines burned for nearly 10 minutes before shutting down, having reached an orbital velocity of 28,800 kilometers per hour. As a spokesperson for Blue Origin states: ``The vehicle underpins our efforts to establish sustained human presence on the Moon, harness in- space resources, provide multi-mission, multi-orbit mobility through Blue Ring, and establish destinations in low Earth orbit.…”