In an Aug. 1 application to the Federal Communications Commission, Blue Origin provided other details about the Blue Moon Pathfinder mission. The company said the mission is scheduled to launch as soon as March 2025 on its New Glenn rocket.
That seems quite soon for a company which has yet to achieve orbit, much less send anything to the Moon. I wish them all the best and hope they succeed.
I’m glad to see Blue starting to aim high, but all of this is heavily dependent on New Glenn’s first flight going well. Fingers crossed, there’s no major problems with the rocket and they can remain on track for this mission.
first flight
They have a lot of work to do before they even get to that point. We’ll see if ESCAPADE actually makes its launch window.
Admittedly, I’m not up to date on how the preparation is going, but a Space News article from last month claims they’re still looking good for the launch window. Blue may have hoped that ESCAPADE wouldn’t be the very first launch, but that ship has sailed. Wouldn’t count them out just yet, not until some critical failure lifts its ugly head. But for my money, the most likely, and most disappointing, outcome is that they scrub due to technical problems and end up missing the window. First launches rarely go off without a hitch. Still gonna be rooting for them and watching whatever stream is available.