Bezos’s Blue Origin set to launch NASA mission to Mars

New Glenn, the towering rocket constructed by Jeff Bezos’s area firm Blue Origin, is ready to take off on its second mission Sunday as competitors intensifies with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket has the duty of sending NASA’s ESCAPADE twin spacecraft to Mars, a bid to check the Crimson Planet’s local weather historical past and pave the best way for eventual human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will even function a key take a look at of whether or not it will probably obtain booster restoration—what would show a technical breakthrough for the corporate if profitable.

The rocket is ready to blast off Sunday throughout an 88-minute launch window that may start at 2:45pm (1945 GMT).

If delayed by climate or a technical glitch, rescheduling might show difficult given the US authorities shutdown. To alleviate airspace congestion, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting industrial rocket lift-offs beginning Monday.

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a hit as its payload achieved orbit and efficiently carried out exams.

However its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, didn’t stick its touchdown on a platform within the Atlantic, and as an alternative was misplaced throughout descent.

This time it’ll strive as soon as extra to get better the booster stage. So far, solely Musk’s firm SpaceX has managed to try this.

‘Indicator’ of progress

The competing area firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a industrial area race that lately escalated, because the US federal area company opened up bids for its deliberate moon mission as complaints emerged that SpaceX was “behind.”

George Nield—a senior aerospace govt whose work promotes the industrial area business, and who has flown with Blue Origin previously—instructed AFP the stakes of Sunday’s launch are excessive.

How the launch performs out might be an indicator of “how effectively they’re doing and the way a lot progress they’ve made,” he mentioned.

If all goes to plan, the dual satellites aboard New Glenn are slated to succeed in Martian orbit in 2027.

US President Donald Trump’s second time period within the White Home has seen the administration pile strain on NASA to speed up its progress to ship a crewed mission to the moon amid a race with China.

Mason Peck, an aeronautics professor at Cornell College and former NASA chief technologist, mentioned elevated competitors between SpaceX and Blue Origin might “develop our choices with regard to launch.”

“Extra launches means extra concepts in area,” Peck mentioned. “It could possibly’t be a nasty factor to have Blue Origin even trailing behind.”

© 2025 AFP