Early this morning (January 16), with the roar of seven engines, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 36 of the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission represents Blue Origin’s first into orbit and is a major milestone for the Jeff Bezos-owned space venture as it attempts to compete in a space currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX progress in the field.
“Today marks a new era for Blue Origin and commercial space,” Jarrett Jones, senior vice president of Blue Origin’s New Glenn program, said in a statement. He said in the statement that the 320-foot vessel Higher rockets will bring more results. “We are focused on increasing our rollout cadence and manufacturing speed.”
As it flew across the Atlantic Ocean, the rocket’s booster successfully separated from its upper stage, then started its own engines and entered orbit about 13 minutes after liftoff. It carries a prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring vehicle, which is intended to eventually carry satellites and is expected to remain in space for six hours before deorbiting and burning up in the atmosphere.
While the primary purpose of today’s mission is to reach orbit, Blue Origin is also trying to accomplish the secondary goal of landing the booster on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. However, Blue Origin lost its booster upon re-entry shortly after the two-stage rocket separated. The successful return of the booster during New Glenn’s first launch was always considered an overly ambitious goal, as evidenced by the booster’s nickname, “So You Told Me There was a Chance.”
Blue Origin vs. SpaceX
New Glenn’s maiden flight intensifies the ongoing space race between Blue Origin and SpaceX, companies founded by two of the world’s richest men. Bezos’ current net worth is estimated at $237 billion, while Musk’s wealth is $428.5 billion.
To this day, Blue Origin has yet to put a rocket into orbit. Another of its rockets, the New Shepard, has carried space tourists to suborbital space. Meanwhile, SpaceX will conduct a staggering 134 orbital launches in 2024 alone. Blue Origin also intends to eventually use the New Glenn rocket to send its Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander to the moon, a mission expected to launch in 2025. Lunar year.
In late 2023, Bezos appointed Dave Limp, a former top executive at Amazon ( AMZN ), to lead Blue Origin. Limp told CNBC in October that the space venture “has been in the R&D phase for a long time,” adding that changing that approach is a key aspect of his vision for the company.
Bezos also called for faster progress. In December 2023, he told podcaster Lex Fridman that his decision to step down as Amazon CEO in 2021 was largely due to the need to focus on Blue Origin. The main reason for doing it is so that I can spend time adding some content to Blue Origin. “We need to pick up the pace. We will do that.
