SPACE – Blue Origin has taken off. Disturbed by several postponements and a last-minute cancellation, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket finally took off this Thursday, January 16 from the Cape Canaveral space base in Florida for this long-awaited inaugural flight.
Aboard a Blue Origin rocket, Sylvain Chiron makes his dream come true with a flight of a few minutes into space
Designed by the company Blue Origin, the 98 meter high rocket must, with this test, ensure its first flight into orbit. A big step forward for the company, which should finally allow it to catch up with its main private competitor: Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Until now, Jeff Bezos’ company has been content to take tourists into space for several years with its rocket called New Shepard, but for only a few minutes.
Its takeoff took place around 2:03 a.m. in Florida, or shortly after 8 a.m. in France. And this, despite weather conditions which were not optimal for takeoff. Without forgetting that the last attempt, on Monday, was ultimately canceled at the very last moment due to a technical problem.
With this successful first takeoff, the space company’s goal was to reach orbit. Which now constitutes a first for the private space company created in 2000. “Anything above that is a bonus”David Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, has already announced. Jeff Bezos was even congratulated by Elon Musk this Thursday morning, visibly delighted to see that his rocket had “ reaches orbit on first attempt ».
« New Glenn has crossed the Karman Line, the internationally recognized space boundary “, the company congratulated itself on social networks, a few minutes after this smooth takeoff, described as ” first ascent to the stars ».
Last objective of this inaugural flight which should last six hours: recover the first stage of the rocket, which propelled the whole thing. Blue Origin uses exactly the same principle as that of Space X, to make New Glenn a partly reusable rocket. A recent technique which makes it possible to reduce costs but also to have a higher flight rate.
Coincidence of timing or not, this Thursday, the company Space X must also launch a rocket into space. Leader in the sector with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy models, Space X has been working for some time on the largest rocket ever created. Named Starship, it must conduct a seventh test flight this Thursday. Weather permitting.
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