Blue Origin, the US space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2000, is poised for a historic first: its maiden voyage into orbital space with a brand new rocket, New Glenn.Here are five key things to know about the heavy-lift vehicle aiming to challenge SpaceX’s dominance in the commercial space market.  – Homage -New Glenn honors a legendary astronaut: John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.It follows in the steps of New Shepard, Blue Origin’s first rocket which was named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space.Standing 320 feet (98 meters) tall — roughly equivalent to a 32-story building — New Glenn is both larger and more powerful than its smaller sibling, which is used for suborbital space tourism.- Heavy-lift -New Glenn is classified as a “heavy-lift launcher,” capable of placing substantial payloads into low-Earth orbit. It is expected to carry up to 45 tons into orbit.That is more than double that of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which can lift around 22 tons, though it falls short of the Falcon Heavy’s 63.8-ton capacity.However, New Glenn has a unique edge: its wider payload fairing, which can accommodate larger objects.It “has the largest capacity to put objects in space, large objects” as a result of its wider payload fairing, Elliott Bryner, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.- Swiss knife -Its versatility means New Glenn could become a “Swiss Army knife” of rockets, capable of deploying a diverse array of payloads to both low and higher orbits.These are set to include commercial and military satellites — as well as Project Kuiper, Bezos’s planned space internet constellation, to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.New Glenn also has the potential to carry crewed spacecraft, notes George Nield, president of Commercial Space Technologies. “One other potential use is for commercial space stations,” he adds.With the International Space Station slated for decommissioning in 2030, the race is on to develop replacements. Blue Origin is among the contenders vying to build the first privately run platform.- Partially reusable -Like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, New Glenn features a reusable first-stage booster — designed for up to 25 flights — and an expendable second stage.But to reuse the rocket, Blue Origin first has to land it. The company has mastered the technique with its much smaller New Shepard rocket, which touches down on solid ground. However, reusing New Glenn will require a successful landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.This is no small feat: It took SpaceX six years to perfect the maneuver with Falcon 9 after its debut launch in 2010.”Landing a rocket like this, the way they’re doing it, is definitely not simple,” said Bryner. “The level of technology required to do this is unbelievable.”Yet achieving reusability is crucial to reducing costs and broadening access to space, added Nield.- Higher tech -Under the hood, New Glenn’s propulsion system represents a step up. The first stage is powered by liquid methane, a cleaner and more efficient fuel than the kerosene used in both stages of Falcon 9.Its second stage uses liquid hydrogen, an even cleaner and more powerful fuel, though more challenging to handle due to its cryogenic properties.”It’s the difference between driving a, you know, a Ferrari or a Volkswagen,” William Anderson, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University told AFP, comparing the technology behind New Glenn and Falcon 9.

Los Angeles city and fire officials put on a united front Saturday following reports of a furious row over the handling of devastating wildfires raging throughout the city.In an at-times tense press conference, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass denied a report that she had been planning to fire Los Angeles City Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley.Crowley, standing alongside Bass, meanwhile said the city’s political leaders, fire and police departments were “all on the same page” as they battled the devastating infernos that have left at least 11 people dead.Crowley had appeared to direct a barb at city leaders on Friday when she said her department was underfunded.”My message is the fire department needs to be properly funded,” Crowley told Fox television’s local network. “It’s not.”Hours later, Crowley met Bass in a private meeting at city hall which ran so late that Bass was forced to miss a scheduled news briefing. The Daily Mail later reported on its website that Bass had fired Crowley.Yet on Saturday Bass and Crowley denied the reported rift as they stood alongside Los Angeles Police Department chief Jim McDonnell.”As you see here, the chief and I are lockstep in our number one mission, and that mission is to get us past this emergency,” Bass told reporters. “We want to make sure that we save lives, we save housing, we save businesses, and if there are differences that we have, we will continue to deal with those in private.”Asked if she had been planning to fire Crowley, Bass replied emphatically: “No.”Crowley reiterated that the city’s leaders were united as they battle the disaster.”We are both focused on our urgent needs to mitigate these devastating wildfires, our top priority remains saving lives and protecting property,” Crowley said.Bass insisted that the city’s fire department would be given all resources necessary to combat the flames.”If Chief Crowley calls me and tells me this is what we need, then that’s what we’ll do,” she said.

After ripping through thousands of buildings, wildfires in Los Angeles were looming Saturday toward the celebrated Getty Center and its priceless collection.Nestled in the mountains above Los Angeles, the famed art museum is within a new evacuation warning zone as the Palisades Fire roars east toward populated areas.Dubbed a “beautiful fortress” and constructed of fire-resistant travertine stone, as well as cement and steel, the center has drawn museum experts from around the world to observe its safety system.Its roofs are covered with crushed stone to prevent embers igniting, and even in the gardens, resilient plants were chosen.Inside, the galleries can be closed off with a vault-like double door that, museum officials say, is practically impenetrable.”Getty staff, the art collections and buildings remain safe from the Palisades Fire,” the museum said Friday, hours before the evacuation warning.”The threat is still happening,” Getty added in an X post.The museum’s unique collection comprises 125,000 artworks — including paintings by Rembrandt, Turner, Van Gogh and Monet — and 1.4 million documents. It also houses a research hub and a foundation.Museum officials have previously said the collection is protected within the center’s fireproof structure, made up of 300,000 travertine blocks and 12,500 tons of steel bars.”The Getty was constructed to house valuable art and keep it very safe from fires, from earthquakes, from any type of damage,” said Lisa Lapin, communications vice president now and when Getty was threatened by fire in 2019.”We are really built like a beautiful fortress, and everything inside is quite safe,” she told AFP at the time.- Getty shuts its doors -Built more than two decades ago by architect Richard Meier, at a cost of $1 billion, the center’s protection measures also include a million-gallon (3.8-million liter) water tank feeding its irrigation system.The building’s ventilation system has an internal recycling system, similar to those found in cars, preventing smoke from entering rooms from the outside.Despite such extensive measures, Getty announced its closure earlier this week “out of caution and to help alleviate traffic.”When the 2019 fire threatened the center, it served as a base for firefighters battling the blaze. Caused by a tree branch falling on power lines, that fire burned 745 acres (300 hectares) and destroyed 10 homes.A fire two years prior also triggered safety measures at Getty, although it affected only the far side of an adjacent freeway.”In both cases, we’ve been very confident that the center is fine,” said Lapin in 2019.The Palisades Fire has ravaged more than 22,000 acres since erupting on Tuesday, and is just 11 percent contained as a series of fires burn through Los Angeles neighborhoods.The fire threatened the separate Getty Villa, which also has special flame resistant protections, earlier in the week.Trees and vegetation around the coastal villa were burned, but the structure and collections — including Greek and Roman antiquities — were spared.