The heavy-lift New Glenn rocket reached orbit during its maiden flight on Thursday, bringing Blue Origin, a private company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, one step closer to competing with launch titan SpaceX.
The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Thursday morning, following several weather-related delays and technical setbacks that had pushed the launch back several days. The company achieved its primary goal of reaching orbit, but fell short of its stretch goal: bringing the first-stage booster back for reuse.
Landing the booster on the first try was an “ambitious goal” but the company “learned a lot from today” and will try again during its next launch this spring, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a statement.
Blue Origin aims to become the second medium- or heavy-lift company, after SpaceX, to slash launch costs by reusing its boosters.
“I think New Glenn is the most promising competitor for SpaceX right now because it is the only other medium/heavy-lift launcher with reusability. ULA’s Vulcan and Arianespace’s Ariane 6 missed the boat on reusability and have no real chance at being cost competitive,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
However, Blue Origin would be in a far better position today had it not taken this long to launch New Glenn, Harrison said. The company has been developing the rocket for over a decade and was originally supposed to have it ready in 2020.
Still, Bezos’s company is in a “strong position” to take the number-two spot in the market, Harrison said, and if Blue Origin can quickly design an even larger vehicle, the company could possibly compete with SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket.
“But they need to first get New Glenn operational,” he said.
The Thursday mission was the first of two certification flights Blue Origin needs before it can start flying national-security missions. Certification isn’t guaranteed directly after the second flight, however; ULA flew its second Vulcan certification flight in October, but has yet to receive certification from the Space Force, which has delayed two planned national-security launches.
Once New Glenn receives the green light, it can start competing for lucrative contracts to send military and spy satellites to space. Blue Origin, ULA, and SpaceX were selected by the Pentagon in June to compete for $5.6 billion worth of contracts over the next four years.
New Glenn will also be critical to another project launched under Bezos: Amazon’s Kuiper project, which aims to deliver a mega-constellation to low-Earth orbit to provide high-speed internet—and compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.
