At the second time of trying, Blue Origin successfully launched its orbital New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on early Thursday morning ET.
The first-ever launch of the New Glenn represents a major milestone for the Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin spaceflight company has now officially entered the orbital launch market and heavy-lift space industry, setting it up to compete with the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The countdown was far smoother than Sunday night’s launch attempt when the clock was paused multiple times before Blue Origin finally scrubbed the effort due to technical reasons. The 98-meter-tall New Glenn rocket blasted skyward from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36 at 2:03 a.m. ET, lighting up the Florida sky as it emitted around 3.9 million pounds of thrust — more than double that of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket though less than the triple-booster Falcon Heavy.
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Minutes after launch, Blue Origin’s NG-1 mission achieved its key goal of reaching orbit. It also deployed the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload, which is designed to test key technologies for the upcoming Blue Ring spacecraft. The payload includes a communications array, power system, and flight computer, and these will be evaluated during a six-hour mission while remaining attached to the rocket’s second stage.
A secondary objective was to land the first-stage booster on a platform floating off the coast of Florida similar to how SpaceX lands the Falcon 9, but about 14 minutes after launch, confirmation came that the booster had been lost.
But after so much work, the Blue Origin team will be delighted with the success of the NG-1 mission as it heralds the beginning of a new era for the company founded by Bezos 25 years ago.
