Blue Origin targets multiple New Glenn launches weekly by end of decade
- Space also has a 'weekend'? Apparently, it's when Bezos isn't blowing up his own launchpad.
- Blue Origin has burned $3 billion on infrastructure to achieve a cadence SpaceX already mastered years ago.
- The '9x4' rocket can't fly faster than the lawsuits settle over the last explosion's debris field.
- Amazon's 'Leo' satellite project may have to settle for carrier pigeons if New Glenn misses its 'early next year' return date again.
Brief Summary
Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-funded hobby that occasionally pretends to be a space company, emerged from hiding to announce it would like to launch multiple New Glenn rockets per week by 2030. This bold target comes after its flagship rocket spent the year grounded, having detonated on the pad in May like a $3 billion firework display. The company is throwing another $330 million into a Florida facility to produce up to 150 upper stages annually, because nothing says 'reliable' like scaling up production of a vehicle that has a 25% failure rate. Its only mission this year ended with the upper stage malfunctioning and a customer's satellite burning up in the atmosphere. Butexecutives insist they'll hit weekly launches by the end of the decade, which is technically a safe promise since it’s further away than the inevitable next delay.
Why This Matters
This story matters to you because it highlights how the 'new space race' is actually being won by the guy who owns Twitter, not the guy who owns your shopping cart. Blue Origin's struggles are your problem because they directly impact Amazon’s satellite internet plan, which means your future Prime delivery drone might have to wait for a rocket that keeps exploding. If Blue Origin continues its trend, you'll be farming your own food with dial-up internet anyway, so the congestion of the low-Earth orbit remains a purely theoretical concern for the mega-rich. And, quite frankly, on a personal level, it's comforting to know that spending billions of dollars doesn't always guarantee competence—there's hope for the rest of us yet.