Blue Origin successfully launches New Glenn rocket into space

Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company Blue Origin has launched its new mega-rocket, the New Glenn, into orbit for the first time.

the rocket lift off January 16 at 2:03AM ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida and crossed official boundaries into space a few minutes later. Shortly thereafter, the second stage burn places the upper part of the rocket into orbit around Earth.

When it was the rocket’s inaugural launch, several things went wrong and the company said its main objective was to reach orbit safely. But the rocket’s first stage exploded on its way back to Earth when Blue Origin tried to land that part on a drone ship at sea.

“I’m incredibly proud that New Glen achieved Orbit in its first attempt,” Dave Limp, former Amazon executive and CEO of Blue Origin, said in a statement. “We knew our booster landing, ‘so you’re telling me there’s a chance,’ was an ambitious goal on the first try. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring Thanks to everyone at Team Blue for this incredible milestone.”

The successful launch ushers in a new era for Blue Origin, which until now has been stuck with a rocket (called New Shepard) not designed to go into orbit, limiting its usefulness. Blue Origin needs New Glen to succeed in building a solid launch business to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has dominated the industry in recent years.

the first Published in 2016New Glen stands 320 feet tall and is powered by seven BE-4 engines, also designed by Blue Origin. The company initially hoped to launch the mega-rocket by 2021. But the expensive development process took longer than expected. Along the way, Blue spent time locked in a legal battle with Origin NASA and SpaceX Over launch agreement, and is charged Cut corners on security by Multiple employees.

Blue Origin now hopes to use the new glen to launch satellites and other spacecraft, including those it is designing for the moon. The company already has contracts with NASA, Space Force, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and others.

Hopefully this too will be launched one day Astronaut on the moon As part of NASA’s Artemis project. That said, NASA’s focus has always shifted with the political winds, and Musk — who has developed a deep relationship with incoming President Donald Trump — said “The moon is an illusion.” Bezos told the press this week He thinks there is room for “multiple winners” in the industry.