Blue Origin records concerns over SpaceX’s Starship as it prepares for first launch from New Glenn

As Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin prepares for the first launch of its New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral this year, the company took time to express concerns about future launches of rival SpaceX’s massive Starship and Super Heavy, which also plan to launch from the Space Coast.

Elon Musk’s company is continuing development of the most powerful rocket ever to orbit from its Texas test site, but has plans for launch pads at both Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the nearby Kennedy Space Center.

The Air Force Department is developing an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the new rocket, which will launch from Space Launch Complex 37 at Canaveral and aims to take over the space used by United Launch Alliance until its final launch of the Delta IV Heavy earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting a similar environmental impact assessment on a Starship launch pad from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A where SpaceX currently flies its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

The public comment period on the FAA’s assessment continued until June 24 before the EIS moved to its next phases.

Blue Origin took the opportunity to voice its concerns, including suggesting limiting the number of launches SpaceX can conduct from Florida.

Noting its more than $1 billion investment in Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 36, Blue Origin notes that it employs 2,700 full-time employees in Brevard County, including 449 at Canaveral “who are directly impacted by local launch activities.”

Blue Origin’s interests in the FAA’s assessment include “the safe and efficient preservation and transportation of real and personal property and personnel that will be impacted” by the introduction of Starship launches, which produce about 17 million pounds of thrust at launch, more than double the power of the Apollo program’s Saturn V rockets.

Concerns associated with launching a rocket of this size include launch pad anomalies, debris dispersion, blast overpressure, sonic boom overpressure, explosion, fire, air quality, noise, or other effects during launch, landing, or other operations.

Blue Origin also raised concerns about “the preservation of historic and environmental resources at or around KSC under Blue Origin’s control, including those owned by the USSF, NASA or other U.S. government entities.”

The company also expressed concerns about its “safe and continued access to limited airspace and maritime resources necessary for Blue Origin’s operations; and safe and continued access to common-use public infrastructure and services.”

The latter is potentially at risk because SpaceX has considered launching its Starship from KSC up to 44 times a year with booster landings that could include Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Canaveral.

Musk said Starship launches could increase over the years across all of its launch sites to thousands every two years to achieve SpaceX’s ultimate goal of building a colony on Mars.

“Starship-Super Heavy operations are expected to have a greater environmental impact than any other launch system currently operating at KSC or CCSFS,” Blue Origin noted in its commentary, noting that the rocket “can hold up to 5,200 tons of liquid methane for propulsion, resulting in safety margin-qualified distances that potentially overlap with other companies’, government’s, and public’s operating sites.”

For this reason, Blue Origin suggests that the FAA’s EIS (environmental impact statement) “should thoroughly evaluate the significant risks, alternatives, mitigations and resources,” it stresses.

This includes capping the number of launches, landings, and other operations such as test firings that Starship can perform; government investment in more launch infrastructure that would reduce Starship’s impacts on other launch companies, such as more launch pads; and granting other launch providers the “right of first refusal or scheduling priority for certain conflicting launch or other operational opportunities.”

Other suggestions include requiring SpaceX or the government to “compensate third parties for any losses caused by Starship operations,” “including business disruptions incurred,” and mandatory penalties for SpaceX “for conducting operations not included in an active EIS or other environmental restriction, for violating a launch license, or any other law, regulation, or other operating rule.”

Blue Origin will compete with SpaceX and ULA for time on the ground, and also with SpaceX for use of maritime assets such as booster recovery ships out of Port Canaveral.

In 2024, SpaceX has already completed 46 launches, compared to three for ULA, in what is expected to be a record year and could see more than 100 launches. That total is expected to reach 200 launch and recovery missions per year by 2028, and could climb to more than 1,250 missions over the next five decades, according to a Space Florida report released this year on supporting infrastructure needs.

The company is aiming for the first rocket launch before the end of the year, with the Space Force having planned in January for the base to open as early as September.

This week, Blue Origin released a video of test operations at LC-36 showing what it said was a successful simulation of the rapid launch tower retraction system needed during rocket liftoff.

“The retraction system ensures that the carrier is quickly positioned away from New Glenn at liftoff to enable launch,” Blue Origin said. “We have been testing the pad since late May and plan to return to the integration facility in a few days.”

One of the driving factors in New Glenn’s launch was the need for seven of the company’s BE-4 engines. Blue Origin also supplies BE-4 engines to ULA for its Vulcan rockets, but those only use two.

ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said last week that Blue Origin has delivered the six rockets needed for ULA’s next three Vulcan launches scheduled for 2024 and has now moved to production for New Glenn.

For New Glenn, the engines can produce 3.9 million pounds of thrust at takeoff and will burn blue because they use liquefied natural gas (LNG) mixed with liquid oxygen.

Blue Origin has dozens of launches under contract, including NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to study wind-solar power around Mars, launches to support future Artemis human lander missions, flights for telecommunications satellite companies Telesat and Eutelsat, and up to 27 launches over the next few years to support Bezos’ Amazon and its Project Kuiper program.

Last month, it also joined SpaceX and ULA as one of three suppliers in the lucrative National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 procurement process, which will award contracts for launches over the next five years worth up to $5.6 billion.

Similar to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, New Glenn’s first stage is designed for a recovery landing on an offshore platform 620 miles away in the Atlantic after launch. They will then be brought back to Port Canaveral, where Blue Origin recently installed its 375-foot-tall tower crane. The company aims to use the first stage for up to 25 missions.

The rocket’s size sets it apart from its competitors, however, as its cargo space is large enough to accommodate three school buses, the company said. That’s thanks to a fairing that’s nearly 23 feet (7 meters) in diameter, compared with about 16 to 18 feet (5 to 5.5 meters) in diameter for the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Vulcan Centaur.

Blue Origin took over the lease on LC-36 in 2015. It had previously been used for government launches from 1962 to 2005, including the Surveyor 1 lunar lander in 1967 and some of the Mariner probes.

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