Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company, Blue Origin, successfully launched its new mega-rocket, New Glenn, into orbit for the first time on Thursday. The rocket lifted off at 2:03 a.m. ET on January 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and crossed the official boundary into space a few minutes later. Shortly after, a second-stage burn placed the rocket’s upper section into orbit around the Earth.
While it was the rocket’s inaugural launch, several aspects of the mission went as planned. The company had stated that reaching orbit safely was its primary objective. However, the rocket’s first stage exploded on its return journey to Earth as Blue Origin attempted to land that section on a drone ship at sea. Despite this setback, the company remains optimistic and hopes to launch again this spring, with plans for as many as eight New Glenn launches this year.
Dave Limp, former Amazon executive and CEO of Blue Origin, in a statement said;
I’m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt. We knew landing our booster, ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,’ on the first try was an ambitious goal. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring. Thank you to all of Team Blue for this incredible milestone.
The successful launch marks the beginning of a new era for Blue Origin, which until now has been limited to using its New Shepard rocket. New Shepard is not designed to go into orbit, restricting its usefulness. Blue Origin needs New Glenn to succeed in order to build a robust launch business and compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has dominated the industry in recent years.
First revealed in 2016, New Glenn stands 320 feet tall and is powered by seven BE-4 engines, which were also designed by Blue Origin. The company had initially hoped to launch the mega-rocket as early as 2021, but the costly development process took longer than expected. Along the way, Blue Origin was involved in legal battles with NASA and SpaceX over launch contracts and faced accusations from multiple employees of cutting corners on safety.
Blue Origin now aims to use New Glenn to launch satellites and other spacecraft, including some that it is designing for lunar missions. The company already has contracts with NASA, the Space Force, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and other entities.
Additionally, Blue Origin hopes to one day launch astronauts to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis project. However, NASA’s focus can shift with political changes, and Elon Musk, who has developed a close relationship with incoming President Donald Trump, has stated that the “Moon is a distraction.” Jeff Bezos told the press this week that he believes there is room for “multiple winners” in the space industry.
