Blue Origin set for first launch of large New Glenn rocket

1 / 4 century after its founding, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is lastly prepared for its maiden orbital voyage with a model new rocket the corporate hopes will shake up the business house race.

The launch initially scheduled for Sunday was pushed again a day as a consequence of “unfavorable” sea situations, Blue Origin posted on X.

Named New Glenn after a legendary astronaut, the rocket stands 320 toes (98 meters) tall, roughly equal to a 32-story constructing—and is about to blast off from Cape Canaveral House Power Station in a launch window that now opens at 1:00 am (0600 GMT) Monday.

“Pointy find yourself!” the corporate’s CEO, Dave Limp posted on X alongside pictures of the gleaming white behemoth.

With the mission dubbed NG-1, Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, is taking direct purpose on the world’s wealthiest: Elon Musk, whose firm SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market via its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

These serve the business sector, the Pentagon, and US house company NASA—together with, crucially, ferrying astronauts to and from the Worldwide House Station.

“SpaceX has for the previous a number of years been just about the one recreation on the town, and so having a competitor… that is nice,” G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, informed AFP.

SpaceX, in the meantime, is planning the following orbital take a look at of Starship—its gargantuan new-generation rocket—the very subsequent day, upping the sense of high-stakes rivalry.

Touchdown try

If all goes to plan, shortly after launch, Blue Origin will try to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship named Jacklyn, in honor of Bezos’s mom, stationed about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange within the Atlantic Ocean.

Although SpaceX has lengthy made such landings a near-routine spectacle, this will probably be Blue Origin’s first shot at a landing on the excessive seas.

In the meantime, the rocket’s higher stage will fireplace its engines towards Earth orbit, carrying a Protection Division-funded prototype spaceship known as Blue Ring, which can stay aboard for the roughly six-hour take a look at flight.

Limp emphasised that merely reaching orbit is the prime aim, whereas efficiently recovering the booster could be a welcome “bonus.”

Blue Origin has expertise touchdown its New Shepard rockets—used for suborbital tourism—however they’re much smaller and land on terra firma slightly than a ship at sea.

Bodily, New Glenn dwarfs the 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed for heavier payloads.

It slots between Falcon 9 and its large sibling, Falcon Heavy, by way of mass capability however holds an edge with its wider payload fairing, excellent for transporting extra voluminous cargo.

Gradual v quick improvement

Blue Origin has already secured a NASA contract to launch two Mars probes aboard New Glenn. The rocket can even assist the deployment of Undertaking 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 house. However whereas Musk goals of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions shifting heavy trade off-planet onto floating house platforms in an effort to protect Earth, “humanity’s blue origin.”

He based Blue Origin in 2000—two years earlier than Musk created SpaceX—however has adopted a extra cautious tempo, in distinction to his rival’s “fail quick, study quick” philosophy.

“There’s been impatience throughout the house neighborhood over Blue Origin’s very deliberate method,” Scott Tempo, an area coverage analyst at George Washington College and former member of the Nationwide House Council, informed AFP.

If New Glenn succeeds, Tempo added, it should give the US authorities “dissimilar redundancy”—precious backup if one system fails.

Musk’s closeness to President-elect Donald Trump has raised considerations about potential conflicts of curiosity, particularly with personal astronaut Jared Isaacman—a enterprise affiliate of Musk—slated to develop into the following NASA chief.

Bezos, nonetheless, has been making his personal overtures, paying respect to his former foe throughout a go to to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, whereas Amazon has stated it could donate $1 million to the inauguration committee.

© 2025 AFP