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Blue origin new glenn rocket8/25/2023 In other words, VADR contracts are meant for lower-cost missions. The agency intends to use launch vehicles from program participants specifically for "small satellites and Class D payloads" that can tolerate higher risk. NASA has granted Blue Origin the contract for ESCAPADE under the Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare ( VADR) program, which was designed to foster the growth of commercial launch services in the US. By the end of March last year, Jarrett Jones, Blue Origin's SVP for New Glenn, admitted that the vehicle wasn't going to fly for the first time in 2022 and that the company was in the process of setting a new date. Blue Origin initially targeted a 2020 date for its first launch - and NASA approved it for future unmanned scientific and exploration missions that year - but the event kept getting pushed back. The New Glenn vehicle is the company's answer to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and other company's heavy-lift vehicles. NASA is targeting a late 2024 launch for the mission, which means we won't have to wait too long to finally see the New Glenn in action - if the Jeff Bezos-owned space corp can prevent further development delays, that is. The mission is called Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers or ESCAPADE, and it was designed to study the planet's magnetosphere using twin spacecraft. As Reuters notes, it's also the company's first interplanetary NASA contract. NASA has selected Blue Origin's New Glenn, the company's heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle that has yet to go on its first launch, for a science mission to Mars.
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