The American aerospace industry will not wait long to set the pace for 2025. On January 10, two major launches are scheduled, as Blue Origin and SpaceX prepare to launch their respective heavy launchers: New Glenn and Starship. Jeff Bezos' company (Blue Origin) will take a slot in the morning at 7 a.m. while Elon Musk's company (SpaceX) will wait until 11 p.m. The launches will not be made from the same base, because while Blue Origin is using Cape Canaveral in Florida, SpaceX is currently focusing the development of Starship on Boca Chica in Texas.
The launch of New Glenn is a few weeks behind schedule, while Blue Origin was planning its first flight for November 2024. A static launch was carried out on December 27, but nothing allowed the rocket to meet its schedule updated at the beginning of December, which confirmed an actual launch before the end of the year. New Glenn, at 100 meters, is the launcher that must compete with Ariane 6 in Europe, but also and above all with the Falcon 9 in the United States. To do this, it aims to be able to send twice the payload of its competitor SpaceX, and to reach geostationary altitude.
2025, the year of Starship and New Glenn
At SpaceX, Starship is already preparing for its seventh test flight, and with it, a new version of the ship. Indeed, if the Super Heavy first stage is not expected to be the focus of attention, it is because all eyes will be on the second stage, Starship, the first of the new “V2” generation, larger (by 35%), equipped with new thermal tiles, a maximum thrust of 1,500 tons (compared to 1,200 tons on Starship V1) and new orientation flaps arranged differently. For the first time, SpaceX will integrate a payload into its ship, namely SpaceX satellite simulators, which should be deployed.
Whether it is SpaceX or Blue Origin, both plan to carry out other launches of their respective rockets. At Blue Origin, the second demonstration flight plans to carry a prototype of the Blue Moon lunar lander as part of the Pathfinder 1 mission. It should be carried out in March. Then, another launch is planned for the spring, with two NASA spacecraft propelled towards Mars, to study its magnetosphere. Then, New Glenn will tackle the deployment of KuiperSat satellites, to extend the project of a constellation of satellites called Kuiper, and which could become an alternative to the GPS that we know.
At SpaceX, a Starship launch is planned every two weeks. If Elon Musk's company manages to keep up this pace (taking advantage of Donald Trump's arrival in power), then the rocket will be able to launch other major missions, such as the first transfer of fuel between two Starships in orbit, the landing of the first Starship on its launch pad, or the presentation of a version of a lunar lander called Starship HLS. On the second generation of the ship, the fuel tanks are 25% larger, which should allow SpaceX to carry out these different missions.
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