Finally ! The American space company Blue Origin launched its large New Glenn rocket for the first time on Thursday. An inaugural flight that looks like a turning point for the company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who intends to catch up with his rival SpaceX.
98 meters high, New Glenn successfully took off at 2:03 a.m. local time (7:03 a.m. GMT) from the Cape Canaveral space base in Florida (United States). Despite not optimal weather conditions. The maiden flight of this rocket has been anticipated for years and has been postponed several times. The last time, at the last minute, on Monday, due to a technical problem.
Mission: achieve the first orbital flight
If the mission goes as planned, this rocket should reach orbit, which would be a first for the private space company created in 2000. “Anything beyond that is a bonus,” David Limp has already said. , the CEO of Blue Origin. The company has already been taking tourists for a few minutes into space with its New Shepard rocket for several years. But so far it has not carried out any orbital flight.
With New Glenn, much more powerful, it aims to enter a new market. That of launching commercial and military satellites into orbit, but also ships and astronauts. It thus hopes to compete with SpaceX, which belongs to another American billionaire, Elon Musk. The company currently dominates the market with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. She is developing the largest rocket ever created. Named Starship, it is due to carry out a seventh test flight on Thursday, weather permitting, after a postponement on Wednesday.
Competing with SpaceX… and Starlink
During this inaugural mission, which should last six hours, Blue Origin intends to attempt to recover the first stage of its rocket, which propelled the whole thing. Like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, New Glenn is partly reusable. This specificity makes it possible to reduce costs and have a higher flight rate.
Blue Origin has already managed to land its New Shepard rocket on land in Texas. But this time, it intends to try a controlled landing of the first stage on a barge at sea – a delicate maneuver similar to those carried out by SpaceX.
Our file on Jeff Bezos
A few hours after launch, Blue Origin confirmed that New Glenn’s second stage and payload had been put into orbit. A good player, Elon Musk congratulated his rival on X, the social network of which he is the owner. “Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt!” »
