Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has blasted off after a cancelled first attempt on Monday. The launch marks a new phase in competition in the commercial space market, posing a challenge to Elon Musk’s dominance.
Thursday 16 January 2025 07:47, UK
Elon Musk has congratulated Jeff Bezos on New Glenn successfully reaching orbit.
Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, is hoping this morning’s launch will seriously rival Musk’s SpaceX.
You can read more on the space race between the world’s richest people – and what it could mean for humanity’s venture into the great beyond – in the link below…
Those lucky enough to be near the launch site have captured footage of the moment New Glenn ascended into the skies.
The rumbling sound of its engines can be heard in the video below as onlookers clap and cheer.
Here’s the moment that New Glenn’s engines engaged and the huge Blue Origin rocket launched for the first time.
It’s a pivotal moment for the company and its owner Jeff Bezos after years of delays and postponements.
The Blue Origin team has signed off from its livestream in Florida, where it’s just gone 2.30am.
Ariane Cornell, vice president of in-space systems, says this has been a “momentous step” and an “historic launch” for the company.
She says the launch is part of the longer plan to “build the road to space for the benefit of mankind”.
“The next era of space flight at Blue Origin is upon us,” she concludes.
Here’s the moment Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos watched his New Glenn rocket launch from the mission control room.
The Amazon boss is now firmly a part of the billionaire boys’ club sending rockets into space.
It appears that New Glenn’s first-stage rocket booster failed to hit its mark landing on its platform in the Atlantic.
On the Blue Origin livestream – which you can watch above – vice president of in-space systems Ariane Cornell says the booster “got close”.
“We met many of our objectives today, we exceeded them,” she said. “We had a clean stage separation, a clean faring separation. We reached orbit.
“We didn’t have booster landing, but man we got close.”
It’s not clear whether New Glenn’s rocket booster has made it to Jacklyn, the landing platform in the Atlantic named after Jeff Bezos’s mother.
There was no footage of the touchdown, and the data is currently frozen.
Blue Origin said before the launch that the landing was among the hardest parts of the mission.
“We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious – but we’re going for it,” it said.
New Glenn is now orbital, and its engines have cut off. This was the main objective of Blue Orbital mission today.
“We’ve hit our key, critical, number one objective,” says Blue Origin’s Ariane Cornell.
“Congratulations, Blue Origin, we have gone orbital!”
The booster is now autonomously descending to a landing platform offshore in the Atlantic.
We’re just passing nine minutes into flight.
Just one of the booster engines will remain running as it slows down and guides itself towards the platform, which is named Jacklyn, after Jeff Bezos’s mother.
On the Blue Origin livestream – which you can watch above – cheers and screams are heard from assembled watchers as New Glenn continues its journey.
New Glenn has now entered the internationally recognised boundary of space.
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