Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company, Blue Origin, successfully launched its first orbital rocket, New Glenn, on Thursday, marking a significant milestone in the competitive space race with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The launch took place at 2:02 a.m. ET (7:02 a.m. GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The New Glenn rocket carried the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a demonstration satellite, into orbit, achieving its primary mission.
CEO of Blue Origin, Dave Limp, expressed his pride in the accomplishment, stating, “We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring.”
While the primary mission was successful, Blue Origin fell short of its secondary objective—recovering the rocket’s main booster, which was intended to be reused.
The booster was lost after approximately 20 minutes of flight when it failed to land on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
Elon Musk congratulated Bezos on the achievement, writing on X, “Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt!”
This launch underscores the fierce rivalry between Bezos and Musk, two of the world’s wealthiest individuals, who are competing to dominate the commercial space industry.
Both companies are developing advanced rockets, satellite networks, and exploring space tourism and lunar missions.
New Glenn, named after astronaut John Glenn, is more powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and has a greater payload capacity. It is a key element of Bezos’s Project Kuiper, which aims to deploy thousands of satellites for global broadband coverage, directly competing with Musk’s Starlink network.
The launch had been delayed earlier due to technical issues involving ice formation, but the team overcame these hurdles, and the 98-meter rocket soared into space, thrilling employees and spectators.
Founded 25 years ago, Blue Origin’s long-term vision is to enable “millions of people working and living in space.” While the company has focused on smaller missions with its New Shepard rocket, this successful launch positions it as a serious contender to SpaceX, which conducted 134 launches last year.
Experts see the rivalry between the two companies as a catalyst for progress. Dr. Simeon Barber from the Open University in the UK noted, “What you are going to see are these two companies challenge each other to make even greater strides.”
NASA, which has increasingly turned to private companies for space missions, has awarded significant contracts to SpaceX.
However, as Blue Origin continues to make strides, the competition could drive down space operation costs and accelerate innovation across the industry.
