The new Glenn Rocket launch marks a big moment for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space dreams are taking flight to a new level.

On Thursday, Bezos’ company Blue Origin launched its big rocket, called New Glenn. It lifted off at 2:30 a.m. ET from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, and the second stage quickly reached orbit. The Blue Ring Pathfinder technology platform on board was “receiving data and working well”. Blue Origin said.

The company also hoped to recover the rocket’s booster after launch, but it was lost during the descent.

“We managed to land our booster, So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, in the first attempt was an ambitious goal. We will learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring”, Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin. he said in a statement.

This inaugural flight for New Glenn could open a new chapter in commercial spaceflight, putting Blue Origin in competition with Elon Musk. prolific SpaceX.

The first launch of New Glenn

The mission is called NG-1. The original window for takeoff was January 10, but weather conditions triggered an initial postponement to January 13. Blue Origin has reached a countdown before. scrubbing the launch.

Blue Origin’s payload (the payload or spacecraft on board) for NG-1 is Blue Ring Pathfinder, a space platform technology demonstration.

Enlarge the Image

“The pathfinder will validate Blue Ring’s communications capabilities from orbit to Earth,” Blue Origin said in a December statement. “The mission will also test its space-based telemetry, tracking and command hardware, and ground-based radiometric tracking that will be used on the future Blue Ring production spacecraft.”

Blue Origin is aiming for a National Security Space Launch certification that would allow it to launch certain US government missions.

As with SpaceX’s Falcon and Falcon Heavy rockets, parts of New Glenn are designed to be reusable. That includes landing the rocket booster on a floating platform in the ocean.

Blue Origin’s launch story

Enlarge the Image

Blue Origin has sent several launches to suborbital space with its The new Shepard spaceship. Bezos himself, as well as celebrities like William Shatner and Michael Strahanthey took rides on New Shepard.

New Shepard is named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, while New Glenn honors John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.

At more than 320 meters high, New Glenn is a hulk compared to New Shepard. The more powerful New Glenn is designed to deliver payloads to low Earth orbit. SpaceX’s Falcon rockets have dominated this field for years, but Blue Origin hopes to change that.

It’s not unusual for launches to run into technical issues and face delays, especially with unproven hardware on the launchpad.

A lot could go right and a lot could go wrong.

“This is our first flight and we’ve been rigorously preparing for it,” Blue Origin Vice President Jarrett Jones said in early January. “But no amount of ground tests or mission simulations are a substitute for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we will learn, refine and apply this knowledge to our next launch.”