New Glenn Rocket launch challenges Elon Musk’s space supremacy

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company has launched its first rocket into orbit in a bid to challenge the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The New Glenn rocket launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time (07:02 GMT).

It pits two of the world’s richest men squarely against each other in a commercial space race, competing to fly bigger and more powerful rockets.

Both want to populate the sky with more satellites, run private space stations and provide transportation for regular trips to the Moon.

“Congratulations on reaching orbit on your first try!” Musk wrote in X in a message to Bezos.

Dave Limp, CEO of Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, said he was “incredibly proud”.

“We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at the next spring premiere,” he added.

Bezos’ team overcame technical hurdles that caused delays this week when ice formation halted a launch.

Blue Origin employees and the crowd gathered near Cape Canaveral cheered as the 98-foot-tall rocket entered orbit.

But the company failed to land New Glenn’s main rocket engine, or booster, on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

He hoped the booster would be reusable for future launches, but after about 20 minutes of flight, the company confirmed it had lost its engine.

Bezos’ company Blue Origin has struggled to match the pace set by SpaceX. But this launch will be considered a big step forward for the business.

The New Glenn rocket was named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth more than 60 years ago.

The rocket is more powerful than SpaceX’s most commonly used rocket, the Falcon 9. It can also carry more satellites, which Bezos plans to use as part of his Project Kuiper, which aims to deploy thousands of low-Earth satellites to provide broadband. services

That project would compete directly with Musk’s Starlink service.

Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin 25 years ago, saying he wanted “millions of people to work and live in space.”

For years it has sent a smaller, reusable rocket called New Shepard to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. It has carried passengers and payloads, including Bezos himself in 2021.

But Blue Origin has been vastly outpaced by SpaceX, which launched its rockets 134 times last year.

And SpaceX’s new generation of rockets, called Starship, is even more powerful. The company expects to launch its seventh test flight later today.

Some experts say a successful New Glenn rocket will create real competition between the two companies and could lower the costs of space operations.

“What you’re going to see is these two companies challenging each other to make even bigger advances,” suggests Dr. Simeon Barber of the UK’s Open University.

Governments have historically spent billions building rockets and sending missions into space.

But the US space agency NASA is increasingly moving away from relying solely on public money and has awarded large contracts to private companies to provide rockets and other space services.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already received billions of dollars in space contracts.

His close relationship with the next US president, Donald Trump, could further strengthen his company.