Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ area firm has launched its first rocket into orbit to problem the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The New Glenn rocket launched at 02:02 native time (07:02 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Area Power Station in Florida.
It pits two of the world’s richest males firmly in opposition to one another in a industrial area race, making an attempt to fly larger and extra highly effective rockets.
Each wish to fill the skies with extra satellites, function non-public area stations, and supply transportation for normal journeys by individuals to the moon.
“Congratulations on reaching orbit on the primary attempt!” Musk wrote to Bezos in a publish on X.
Dave Limp, CEO of Bezos’ area firm Blue Origin, stated he was “extremely proud”.
“We are going to be taught quite a bit from immediately and check out once more on our subsequent launch this spring,” he added.
Bezos’ workforce ironed out technical hiccups that induced delays earlier this week when ice formations halted a launch.
Blue Origin employees and crowds gathered close to Cape Canaveral because the 98-meter-tall rocket plunged into orbit.
However the firm didn’t land New Glenn’s important rocket engine, or booster, on a platform within the Atlantic Ocean.
It had hoped the booster can be reusable for future launches however after about 20 minutes of flight, the corporate confirmed it had run out of engines.
Bezos’ firm Blue Origin has struggled to match the tempo set by SpaceX. However the launch will probably be seen as an enormous step for the enterprise.
The New Glenn rocket was named after John Glenn, the primary American astronaut to orbit the Earth 60 years in the past.
This rocket is extra highly effective than SpaceX’s mostly used rocket, the Falcon 9. It may additionally carry extra satellites, and Bezos desires to make use of it as a part of his Venture Kuiper, which goals to deploy hundreds of low-Earth satellites to ship broadband. Companies.
That mission will compete instantly with Musk’s Starlink service.
Jeff Bezos based Blue Origin 25 years in the past, claiming he needed “hundreds of thousands of individuals to work and dwell in area”.
For a number of years Enterprise has despatched a small, refuelable rocket referred to as New Shepard to the sting of Earth’s environment. It has carried passengers and payloads, together with Bezos himself, in 2021.
However Blue Origin has been dramatically outpaced by SpaceX, which launched its rockets 134 instances final yr.
And SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, referred to as Starship, is extra highly effective nonetheless. The corporate expects to launch it on its seventh take a look at flight later immediately.
Some consultants say a profitable New Glenn rocket would create actual competitors between the 2 corporations and decrease the prices of area operations.
“What you are going to see is that these two corporations problem one another to make even larger advances,” recommended Dr Simeon Barber of the Open College within the UK.
Governments have traditionally spent billions constructing rockets and sending missions into area.
However the US area company NASA is transferring away from relying solely on public cash and has awarded giant contracts to non-public corporations to offer rockets and different area companies.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already obtained billions of {dollars} in area contracts.
His shut relationship with the following US President, Donald Trump, may additional strengthen his firm.
