Blue Origin successfully launches the New Glenn rocket into space

Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company Blue Origin has launched its new mega-rocket, named New Glenn, into orbit for the first time.

The gun got up at 2:03 AM ET on January 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and crossed the official border into space a few minutes later. Shortly after, a second stage burn placed the upper section of the rocket into orbit around the Earth.

During the rocket’s inaugural launch, a number of things went wrong, and the company had said that getting it into orbit safely was its main goal. But the first stage of the rocket exploded on the way back to Earth as Blue Origin tried to land that section on a drone ship at sea.

“I’m incredibly proud that New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” Dave Limp, former Amazon executive and CEO of Blue Origin, said in a statement. “We know that landing our booster, “So you tell me there is a chance”, at the first attempt was an ambitious goal. We will learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring. Thanks to all the Blue Team for this incredible milestone.”

The successful launch started a new era for Blue Origin, which until now has been stuck with a rocket (called New Shepard) that is not designed to go into orbit, which limits its usefulness. 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 revealed in 2016New Glenn sits at an altitude of 320 meters and is powered by seven BE-4 engines, which Blue Origin also designed. The company had initially expected to launch the mega-rocket as early as 2021. But the cost development process took longer than expected. Along the way, Blue Origin has spent time locked in legal battles with NASA and SpaceX on launch contracts, and was accused of cut corners on security from many employees.

Blue Origin now hopes to use New Glenn to launch satellites and other spacecraft, including those it is designing for the Moon. The company already has contracts with NASA, the Space Force, Amazon’s Kuiper Project, and others.

He also hopes to launch one day astronauts to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis project. That said, NASA’s focus has always shifted with the political winds, and Musk — who has forged a deep relationship with incoming President Donald Trump — has he said a “Moon is a distraction.” Bezos he told the press this week who thinks there is room for “multiple winners” in the industry.