Blue Origin, the area firm based by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its huge New Glenn rocket into orbit for the primary time early Thursday, marking a brand new step within the business area 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 House Power Station within the US state of Florida, a dwell webcast confirmed.
The mission is seen as essential to Blue Origin’s efforts to compete with Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, which dominates the business area trade.
“LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first ever ascent toward the stars,” Blue Origin stated on social media platform X.
“New Glenn has passed the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space!” the agency posted just some minutes later.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 16, 2025
Blue Origin stated in an announcement 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,” stated 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 meant 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 is able to 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 submit on his X platform.
Upping the high-stakes rivalry, SpaceX is planning one other orbital check later Thursday of Starship – its gargantuan new-generation rocket.
Repeated delays
An preliminary check 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 in the course of the countdown.
The corporate later stated it had found an icing problem on a purge line and postponed the launch.
With the newest mission, dubbed NG-1, Amazon founder Bezos was taking goal 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 turn out to be very 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 informed AFP, anticipating the competitors to drive down prices.
Blue Ring
Aboard the New Glenn check flight and now in orbit is a Protection Division-funded prototype of a complicated spaceship known as Blue Ring, which might someday 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 huge sibling, Falcon Heavy, by way of mass capability however holds an edge with its wider payload fairing, able to carrying the equal of 20 vans.
New Glenn safely reached its meant orbit throughout immediately’s NG-1 mission, conducting our main goal. The second stage is in its closing orbit following two profitable burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving information and performing nicely.
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 may even assist the deployment of Venture 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 area.
However the place Musk goals of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy trade off-planet onto floating area platforms as a way to protect Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”
