The competition between the two richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, goes beyond land borders. With a successful first flight this Thursday, January 16 of the New Glenn rocket, created by his company Blue Origin, the founder of Amazon hopes to compete with Space X’s Falcon 9 launcher, but also with Ariane 6, the rocket of European Space Agency.
Which rocket has the greatest capacity? Which one is the most reliable, or even… the most “ecological” ? Overview of their respective performances.
► Performance
With its 98 meters high, the New Glenn rocket is much larger than its two rivals: Falcon 9 measures “only” 70 meters high, and Ariane 6 up to 62 meters. However, Falcon 9, New Glenn and Ariane 6 are three medium launchers, but Blue Origin’s has a capacity of 45 tonnes in low orbit, close to that of heavy launchers (over 50 tonnes). For its part, the Space X rocket has a capacity of 22 tonnes in low orbit, and Ariane 6 of 21 tonnes
To reach a transfer orbit allowing it to propel a satellite so that it settles at an altitude of 36,000 km, where it will rotate at the speed of the Earth, New Glenn is also doing well, with its 13 tonnes of capacity, compared to 11 tonnes for Ariane 6 and 9 tonnes for Falcon 9.
► Cost of a launch
The base prices for the launch of the three rockets are of the same order: from 70 million dollars (around 68 million euros) for the Falcon 9, between 70 and 115 million euros for Ariane 6, and between 68 and $110 million for New Glenn.
“These are the prices displayed, but the real price of missions rises very quickly, for example to meet military requirements. Significant discounts are also made for the first flights »underlines Olivier Sanguy, from the Cité de l’espace in Toulouse.
► Reliability
If you are manufacturing a satellite, a small technological gem costing several million euros, the choice of launcher is crucial if you do not want to throw all this money down the drain. For the moment, it is better to bet on the Falcon 9 rocket, even if one of its missions failed last summer, recommends Olivier Sanguy.
« It is the most reliable operationally, because it has more than 420 flights to its credit, and only 2 or 3 failures. Its success percentage is higher than that of Ariane 5 which was, rightly, considered an excellent launcher.explains the person responsible for space news.
For their part, the New Glenn and Ariane 6 rockets only made one flight each. Their missions went well overall. The Blue Origin launcher, however, failed to land its booster, the first stage allowing takeoff of the device, which cannot therefore be reused.
-During its first launch in the summer of 2024, the engine of the second stage of Ariane 6 was unable to restart several times, as was initially planned.
► Pollution and space debris
The three rockets have special engines allowing them to deorbit to limit the production of space debris.
At the end of 2022, the Space X company was even the first to land the first stage of one of its rockets, the booster, in order to be able to reuse it. Although the first mission did not fulfill this objective, New Glenn should eventually offer the same possibility. This is not the case for Ariane 6, whose first stage is not reusable.
“It is difficult to compare the environmental footprint of each of these devices. As with electric cars, the pollution generated by a reusable booster is probably greater when it leaves the factory, then smooths out over its reuse.believes Olivier Sanguy.
► Fuel
The three rockets use different propulsion methods. The Ariane 6 rockets are powered by powder and its two stages by hydrogen mixed with liquid oxygen.
The Falcon 9’s fuel is kerosene, also mixed with liquid oxygen. For its part, New Glenn uses two different fuels for its two stages: liquid methane for the first, and hydrogen for the second.
“We do not know the long-term impact of the release of these pollutants into the upper atmosphere.specifies Olivier Sanguy. There’s no reason to be concerned about it yet, but space agencies are monitoring it closely. »
