Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, agreed with NASA for a small-scale Mars mission. NASA has recently cut the budget for its space programs, especially the Mars mission. In this sense, it was among the predictions that the agreement made with Blue Origin in February would also be affected by this belt tightening. However, the agreement between NASA and Blue Origin has become official. But when will Blue Origin and the New Glenn rocket go to Mars?
Blue Origin Mars mission date revealed? But there is a problem
The Blue Origin Mars mission is expected to take place in late 2024. Although there is no official launch date announced at the moment, NASA generally schedules launches every 26 months. In this sense, the Blue Origin Mars mission launch will take place in late 2024. If this launch does not take place on that date, it is likely to be postponed to 2026.
It is in this detail that the whole problem emerges. This new rocket of Blue Origin, New Glenn, has not performed a launch test so far. The company, which is experienced in space tourism, will make the first tests in 2024. If these trials are successful and receive approval from NASA, there is a high probability that the Mars mission will take place at the end of 2024.
Although there seems to be no problem here, Blue Origin was actually planning to conduct these launch tests in 2023. Again, in this sense, Blue Origin officials cannot guarantee that the launch tests will be carried out on time.
It has been revealed why NASA made a deal for a rocket that has not even been tested yet. Accordingly, Blue Origin and NASA will receive a payment of 20 million dollars for this Mars mission. According to experts, this is a very modest figure for a space mission. Again, the total cost of this mission for NASA is 79 million dollars.
Built by Blue Origin, New Glenn is the company’s first orbital-class rocket. In this sense, the rocket is 98 meters high and 7 meters in diameter. According to Blue Origin, the rocket has the power to lift approximately 45 tons of payload into low Earth orbit. In this form, the New Glenn rocket has a power above the maximum capacity of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. However, with this power, the rocket is below SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.
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