Cape Canaveral, Florida: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is set to launch its New Glenn rocket early Monday, 13th January in a highly anticipated inaugural mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking a major milestone in its quest to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the competitive satellite launch market.
Standing at an impressive 30 stories tall, the partially reusable New Glenn rocket is scheduled for liftoff at 1:30 am ET (0630 GMT). Fuelled by methane and liquid oxygen, the rocket is poised to demonstrate Blue Origin’s capabilities after a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey.
The mission will also include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first-stage booster on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after launch, while its second stage proceeds to Earth orbit.
Bezos said in a pre-launch interview that, “The thing we’re most nervous about is the booster landing, on a first flight, anything can happen at any phase of the mission.”
Secured within New Glenn’s payload bay is the first prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring spacecraft, designed for manoeuvrability and intended for national security and satellite servicing missions.
Successfully reaching orbit on its debut flight would be a rare and significant achievement for a space company, with Bezos noting that while achieving this would be a great success, landing the booster would be “icing on the cake.”
This launch marks a pivotal moment for Blue Origin, which has faced delays in New Glenn’s development while SpaceX solidified its dominance with the reusable Falcon 9 rocket.
Over the past decade, New Glenn has seen three different Blue Origin CEOs and numerous setbacks. However, in late 2023, Bezos prioritized the rocket’s progress, naming Amazon veteran Dave Limp as CEO to instil a sense of urgency.
With more than twice the power of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, New Glenn is poised to be a game-changer in the industry. The rocket already has dozens of customer contracts worth billions of dollars.
The Blue Origin team has high hopes for this inaugural mission as they look to secure their position as a formidable competitor in the satellite launch market.
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