Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Set for Maiden Orbital Launch

CAPE CANAVERAL — After 25 years since its inception, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is gearing up for its inaugural orbital flight with the innovative New Glenn rocket. This new development is poised to disrupt the commercial space race.

The launch, originally scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed to Monday due to unfavorable sea conditions, as reported by Blue Origin on X.

Measuring 320 feet (98 meters) tall, the New Glenn rocket is named after the iconic astronaut John Glenn and is approximately the height of a 32-story building. It is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Monday.

In a post on X, CEO Dave Limp shared a photo of the impressive rocket, enthusiastically stating, “Pointy end up!” This launch, designated NG-1, positions Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, in direct competition with Elon Musk, whose SpaceX has a stronghold on the orbital launch market with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, serving commercial clients, the Pentagon, and NASA.

G. Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, remarked, “SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town and so having a competitor… this is great.” Concurrently, SpaceX is planning its next orbital test of the Starship rocket on the same day, intensifying the competition.

Should the launch proceed as planned, Blue Origin will attempt to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship named Jacklyn, named in honor of Bezos’ mother, positioned approximately 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. While SpaceX has made such landings routine, this will mark Blue Origin’s first attempt at a sea landing.

Meanwhile, the rocket’s upper stage will ignite its engines towards Earth orbit, carrying a Defense Department-funded prototype spaceship known as Blue Ring, which will remain in orbit for the test flight lasting around six hours. Limp has emphasized that reaching orbit is the primary goal, while recovering the booster would be a valuable bonus.

Although Blue Origin has experience with its New Shepard rockets, primarily used for suborbital tourism, these rockets are significantly smaller and land on solid ground rather than a ship at sea.

Blue Origin has also secured a NASA contract to launch two Mars probes aboard the New Glenn rocket. Additionally, it will support the deployment of Project Kuiper, a satellite internet constellation aimed at competing with Starlink.

Bezos shares Musk’s passion for space exploration; however, while Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions relocating heavy industry to floating space platforms to protect Earth, termed humanity’s blue origin. He established Blue Origin in 2000, two years before Musk founded SpaceX, and has taken a more cautious approach compared to Musk’s fail fast, learn fast philosophy.

Scott Pace, a space policy analyst at George Washington University and former member of the National Space Council, noted, “There’s been impatience within the space community over Blue Origin’s very deliberate approach.” He further stated that if New Glenn is successful, it will provide the U.S. government with dissimilar redundancy — a critical backup system in case of failures.