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 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time (07:02 Japan time).
In the film, two of the world’s richest people face off against each other in a commercial space race, competing to fly bigger and more powerful rockets.
Both companies want to put more satellites in the sky, operate private space stations, and provide transportation for people to regularly travel to the moon.
“Congratulations on reaching orbit on your first attempt!” Musk wrote in a post to Bezos about X.
“I’m incredibly proud,” said Dave Limp, CEO of Bezos’ space company Blue Origin.
“We learned a lot from today and will try again on our next launch this spring,” he added.
Bezos’ team overcame the technical hurdles that caused delays earlier this week when the launch was halted due to ice formation.
Blue Origin employees and the crowd gathered near Cape Canaveral cheered as the 300-foot-tall rocket blasted into orbit.
However, the company failed to land New Glenn’s main rocket engine, or booster, on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
The company had hoped the booster could be reused on future launches, but confirmed it lost its engine after about 20 minutes of flight.
Bezos’ company Blue Origin has struggled to match the pace set by SpaceX. However, this launch will be a major step forward for the business.
The New Glenn rocket is named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth more than 60 years ago.
This rocket is more powerful than SpaceX’s most commonly used rocket, the Falcon 9. Also, because it can carry more satellites, Bezos wants to use the rocket as part of Project Kuiper, which aims to deploy thousands of low-Earth satellites to provide broadband. . service.
The project will compete directly with Musk’s Starlink service.
blue origin mediaJeff Bezos founded Blue Origin 25 years ago, claiming he wanted “millions of people to work and live in space.”
For years, the venture has been sending a small, reusable rocket called New Shepard to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. In 2021, it has carried passengers and cargo, including Bezos himself.
But Blue Origin’s performance dramatically outpaces SpaceX, which launched 134 rockets last year.
And SpaceX’s new generation rocket, called Starship, is even more powerful. The company hopes to launch on its seventh test flight later today.
Some experts say a successful New Glenn rocket could create real competition between the two companies and reduce the cost of space operations.
Dr. Simeon Barber of the Open University in the UK suggests that “these two companies will challenge each other to reach even greater heights.”
Governments have historically spent billions of dollars building rockets and sending missions into space.
But the US space agency NASA is increasingly moving away from relying solely on public funding, awarding huge contracts to private companies to provide rockets and other space services.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already received space contracts worth billions of dollars.
The company could be further strengthened by its close relationship with incoming US President Donald Trump.
