New Glenn engines fire ahead Mars mission

Blue Origin cleared a key hurdle for New Glenn’s second flight, igniting seven BE-4 engines on the Cape Canaveral pad for 38 seconds at 9:59 pm EDT Thursday. The run hit full power for 22 seconds, topped nearly 3.9 million pounds of thrust, and included staged shutdowns to mimic a barge landing burn. With the hold-down firing done, crews will roll the rocket back to install a fairing holding NASA’s twin ESCAPADE Mars probes. A launch could come as soon as November 9, after which the spacecraft will loiter near Earth until next November before departing for Mars.