Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company Blue Origin has launched its massive new rocket, the New Glenn, into space for the first time.
Rocket lifted. It entered space at 2:03 a.m. on January 16, minutes after crossing the official border from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shortly after, a second stage fire sent the upper part of the rocket into Earth orbit.
During the first rocket launch, A lot of things went right, and the company says reaching orbit safely is its main goal. But Blue Origin was trying to land a drone ship at sea when the rocket's first stage exploded on its way back to Earth. The company hopes to open again this spring and has plans in place. up to eight New Glenn starts this year.
“We are very proud that New Glenn has achieved success in orbit on its first attempt,” Dave Limp, Amazon's executive and chief executive officer, said in a statement. 'So you're telling me you have a chance' landed on our booster, we know. It was an ambitious goal when I first tried. We learned a lot from today and will try again at our next launch this spring. Thank you to everyone at Team Blue for this incredible milestone.”
The successful launch begins a new era for Blue Origin, which until now is stuck on a rocket (New Shepard) not designed to go into orbit. Blue Origin needs New Glenn to succeed in order to build a solid launch business to take on Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has dominated the industry in recent years.
First Reported in 2016.New Glenn is 320 feet tall and powered by seven BE-4 engines, also designed by Blue Origin. The company initially hoped to launch the mega rocket in early 2021. But the costly development process took longer than expected. Along the way, Blue Origin has been locked in legal battles. NASA and SpaceX He was accused of exceeding the launch contracts. Safe corner cutting. by Many employees.
Blue Origin now hopes to use New Glenn to launch satellites and other spacecraft it is designing for the moon. The company is NASA, Space Force It already has contracts with Amazon's Project Kuiper and others.
It is also expected to launch one day. Astronauts to the Moon That said, as part of NASA's Artemis project, NASA's focus is always shifting with the political winds, and Musk has developed a deep relationship with incoming President Donald Trump. He said. “The moon is a distraction,” Bezos He said at a press conference this week. He thinks there is room for “multiple winners” in the industry.