Blue Origin, the house firm based by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its large New Glenn rocket into orbit for the primary time early Thursday, marking a brand new step within the business house race.
The rocket, whose inaugural mission had been delayed by a number of years, blasted off at 2:03 am (0703 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station within the US state of Florida, a reside webcast confirmed.
The mission is seen as important to Blue Origin’s efforts to compete with Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, which dominates the business house trade.
“LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first ever ascent toward the stars,” Blue Origin mentioned on social media platform X.
“New Glenn has passed the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space!” the agency posted only a few minutes later.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 16, 2025
Blue Origin mentioned in a press release that the second-stage engine had reached “its final orbit”, including that the Blue Ring superior spaceship prototype that was alongside for the journey was “receiving data and performing well.”
The primary-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, was misplaced throughout descent, it added.
“I’m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” mentioned the corporate’s CEO, Dave Limp, within the assertion.
“We knew landing our booster… on the first try was an ambitious goal. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring.”
Blue Origin had supposed to land the booster – powered by liquid methane and designed for as much as 25 flights – on a drone ship stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange within the Atlantic Ocean.
Rival SpaceX has made such landings now routine, however this may have been Blue Origin’s first shot on the feat.
Fellow billionaire Musk recommended Bezos on New Glenn’s inaugural launch, providing congratulations “on reaching orbit on the first attempt” in a put up on his X platform.
Upping the high-stakes rivalry, SpaceX is planning one other orbital take a look at later Thursday of Starship – its gargantuan new-generation rocket.
Repeated delays
An preliminary take a look at launch of the towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of American astronaut John Glenn, had been scrubbed early Monday after repeated halts through the countdown.
The corporate later mentioned it had found an icing difficulty on a purge line and postponed the launch.
With the most recent mission, dubbed NG-1, Amazon founder Bezos was taking purpose on the solely man on this planet wealthier than him: fellow tech innovator Musk.
Musk’s SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market via its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, which have grow to be important for the business sector, Pentagon and NASA.
“SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town, and so having a competitor… this is great,” G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, earlier advised AFP, anticipating the competitors to drive down prices.
Blue Ring
Aboard the New Glenn take a look at flight and now in orbit is a Protection Division-funded prototype of a complicated spaceship referred to as Blue Ring, which may in the future journey via the photo voltaic system.
Bodily, the gleaming white New Glenn rocket dwarfs SpaceX’s 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed for heavier payloads.
It slots between Falcon 9 and its large sibling, Falcon Heavy, when it comes to mass capability however holds an edge with its wider payload fairing, able to carrying the equal of 20 vehicles.
New Glenn safely reached its supposed orbit throughout as we speak’s NG-1 mission, conducting our main goal. The second stage is in its remaining orbit following two profitable burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving knowledge and performing effectively.
We misplaced the… pic.twitter.com/MmDlCb6AVj
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) January 16, 2025
Blue Origin has already secured a NASA contract to launch two Mars probes aboard New Glenn. The rocket can even help the deployment of Challenge Kuiper, a satellite tv for pc web constellation designed to compete with Starlink.
For now, nonetheless, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, whereas different rivals – United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Rocket Lab – path far behind.
Like Musk, Bezos has a lifelong ardour for house.
However the place Musk goals of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy trade off-planet onto floating house platforms as a way to protect Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”
