Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is preparing to inaugurate its New Glenn heavy launcher. A flight awaited for years and which should help Jeffe Bezos finally catch up with Elon Musk and his company SpaceX.
Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is preparing to carry out the maiden flight of its New Glenn heavy launcher in the coming days. This will be a first which aims to consolidate its position in an increasingly competitive space sector, in particular against Elon Musk.
98 meters high, the American company’s New Glenn rocket could take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida as early as 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday (7 a.m. Belgian time), according to the American aviation regulator, with another firing window on Friday.
Waited for several years
With this flight, expected for several years and postponed several times, the company aims to catch up with its great rival SpaceX, which belongs to another American billionaire, Elon Musk.
Blue Origin has already been taking space tourists for a few minutes into space with its New Shepard rocket for several years. But it has not yet conducted any flights into orbit.
With New Glenn, much more powerful, it aims to enter a new market, that of launching heavy commercial and military satellites and sending ships to the Moon or even Mars.
The New Glenn rocket is partly reusable, like those of its competitor, and must be able to carry up to 45 tonnes into low orbit. This is more than double that for Falcon 9, but still less than for Falcon Heavy (63.8 tonnes), launched for the first time in 2018.
Once the New Glenn rocket is launched, its first stage, which propelled the whole thing, must attempt a controlled landing on a barge at sea. If this launch is a success, other New Glenn flights should follow in 2025.
The company has already signed contracts with several clients, including NASA for a mission to Mars, now planned for the spring, and another manned mission to the Moon with Artemis 5 by 2030.
Course spatiale
jeff bezos
elon musk
SpaceX
