Another major contender has entered the launch business as Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket roared into orbit today. At 2:03 am EST, the heavy launcher lifted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
Today's launch comes after 15 years of development and setbacks as Blue Origin worked to develop a semi-reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that could rival companies like SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for commercial and military space contracts. The 313 ft (95 m) tall New Glenn rocket, named after the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth, isn't as large or as powerful as SpaceX's Starship, but it can still place up to 45 tonnes into orbit at what the company hopes will be competitive prices.
With this in mind, today's launch was not only a demonstration of Blue Origin's ability to fly a proper space vehicle, but how it can provide services to the US Space Force. As part of this, New Glenn carried out two successful burns of its BE3U engines after reaching orbit. In addition, it had a payload that consisted of the Blue Ring Pathfinder, which was developed by Blue Origin as a new way to refuel, transport, and host satellites.
Though the second stage reached orbit and is functioning as expected, the first stage of New Glenn was lost during a powered descent into the atmosphere as a prelude to an attempted soft landing on an ocean barge.
So, today saw SpaceX lose a second stage while Blue Origin lost a first stage.
The universe balances.
"I’m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt," said Dave Limp, CEO, Blue Origin. "We knew landing our booster, So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, on the first try was an ambitious goal. We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring. Thank you to all of Team Blue for this incredible milestone."
Source: Blue Origin
