Bezos’ Blue Origin Lofts NASA Craft, Nails Booster Landing

Blue Origin LLC launched its flagship New Glenn rocket to space and successfully deployed two Mars-bound NASA spacecraft on Thursday in a major feat for the Jeff Bezos-backed company in its quest to compete with SpaceX.

The rocket, roughly 320-feet (97.5 meters) tall, thundered off the launchpad at 3:55 p.m. New York time.

A few minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s lower portion separated from its upper stage, which continued on its journey to space. The rocket’s booster then descended back to Earth, where it fired engines to slow itself down and landed on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Raucous cheers and applause erupted from mission control as the booster touched down on the boat. Bezos, the Amazon.com Inc. founder, could be seen standing next to Blue Origin Chief Executive Officer Dave Limp, among ebullient employees. 

“We’re here, we’re in the game, we have a reusable booster and this is just the beginning,” Blue Origin launch commentator Tabitha Lipkin said during the webcast.

Only Elon Musk’s SpaceX has landed a booster vertically after launching it toward orbit.

A few minutes later, Blue Origin deployed two Rocket Lab Corp.-made spacecraft on a trajectory toward Mars to study how solar winds interact with the planet’s atmosphere. The two probes will loiter around a point in space before heading to the Red Planet next year, when Earth and Mars are at their closest distance.

The booster landing is key to Blue Origin’s goal of making New Glenn partially reusable, with recovered rockets to be recycled for multiple launches. 

The mission, called Escapade, is New Glenn’s second flight ever and its first for NASA. 

Key to Blue Origin’s ambitious plans for space exploration, New Glenn is years behind schedule and has faced a longer-than-expected waiting period of around nine months since its first flight in January. 

A successful mission now puts Blue Origin on track to challenge the grip that SpaceX has on the launch industry. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is the most prolific launch vehicle in the world.

Limp said in January that Blue Origin had aimed for a second launch by late spring and for a total of six to eight flights in 2025.

During New Glenn’s debut flight, the rocket reached orbit but missed the intended booster landing. 

While Blue Origin sends tourists to the edge of space and back on smaller rockets, New Glenn would give the company the capability to deliver spacecraft and satellites into orbit and beyond. That makes New Glenn key to clearing Blue Origin’s $10 billion backlog of customer contracts. 

The company also has a contract with NASA to launch astronauts to the moon for the agency’s Artemis V mission. 

New Glenn is part of a class of next-generation rockets, including United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan and the European Space Agency’s Ariane 6, that have emerged as potential players in the launch industry but have faced difficulties increasing their frequency of flights to orbit.