Jeff Bezos, CEO of Blue Origin, launched his powerful New Glenn rocket early on Thursday morning, despite the bad weather. It lit up the sky in a cloudy night as it flew away from Cape Canaveral, in a bid to compete against Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX.
The New Glenn’s stage one was designed, like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, to land on a Blue Origin recovery vessel after lifting the upper stage from the lower atmosphere. Bezos is determined to compete against Musk in the high frontier. Reusability will be a crucial element.
Blue Origin did not comment on what happened in the final minutes of the descent.
A few minutes later, a company spokesperson said: “We could very well have lost our booster.”
Mission began at 2:03 am EST, when the New Glenn’s seven BE-4 methane engines at the bottom of the first stage ignited with a rush and loud roar.
The New Glenn rocket, which was accelerating smoothly as it consumed propellants, lost weight and ascended a bright blue-white plume from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, put on an amazing show to the delight of Blue Origin employees and local residents.
Launching was delayed by a week due to bad weather conditions in the landing zone of the booster and a minor problem with a technical component. It appeared that Thursday was a clear day as the rocket rose and vanished from view.
After three minutes and ten seconds, the first stage engines of the rocket shut down. This triggered stage separation and the ignition of two BE-3U engines powered by hydrogen, which power the rocket’s secondary stage.
The upper stage was climbing to orbit when the first stage began to coast up before it curved over and fell back to Earth. It then focused on the Jacklyn which stood several hundred miles away in the Atlantic Ocean. NASA’s WB57 photo-reconnaissance plane was nearby and documented the flight using high-resolution camera.
The three engines were re-ignited to slow down the booster for reentry. However, during the burn the video of one engine froze, and the on-screen telemetry showed an altitude and velocity of 4,285mph while the screen telemetry was still showing 84,226feet. It was not known whether the rocket crashed into the ocean due to an explosion or another malfunction.
Before the launch, company officials stated that they would take note of any problems and proceed with another flight within a few months.
Dave Limp told CBS News this week that “we have another one in production” and that it would be ready soon. “We’ll be flying (again) in the spring, either way.
Blue Origin chose to land the rocket on its maiden flight, while SpaceX had tested the Falcon 9 landing system by splashing water in the ocean. Blue Origin’s decision was partly based on its experience in launching and landing the sub-orbital New Shepard Rocket, which is used to transport space tourists, scientists and payloads for brief up-and down flights from the lower atmosphere.
Nevertheless, the company acknowledged the challenge and named the first New Glenn stage “So you’re telling me there’s a chance.”
Limp told reporters before the launch: “There is no doubt that it would be audacious of us to attempt to land on our first try.”
The first-stage landing was only one of many major objectives. The main goal of this flight was to place the upper stage in orbit along with the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a spacecraft designed by Blue Origin. The Blue Ring is a space tug that can deploy or host multiple satellites on different orbits, while also providing computer support.
The Blue Ring would remain on the upper stage of the New Glenn for the entire five-hour, 50-minute flight planned.
The flight plan required two firings of upper stage engines. The second was to be performed about an hour following liftoff. This would place the vehicle, along with the Blue Ring Pathfinder, in an orbit that had a high of approximately 12,000 miles, and a low of roughly 1,500 miles.
Blue Ring has a 144-foot rollout solar array, 13 ports to host and deploy payloads, and it can hold satellites or instruments up to 2.5 tons in its upper deck.
The initial flight will not include any payloads, but the systems of the spacecraft will be tested to find out how it performs in the space environment.
Blue Origin, regardless of the outcome of Thursday’s launch, will be up against SpaceX which dominates the market for commercial launches.
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rockets starting in 2010. Since then, SpaceX has carried out 436 missions of the Falcon 9 family with only two failures during flight.
SpaceX, which is currently testing the Super Heavy-Starship, a massive, fully-reusable rocket, has complicated the situation for Blue Origin. The Super Heavy-Starship is the most powerful launch vehicle ever constructed. Once operational, it will play a key role in the launch of payloads into low-Earth orbit, to the moon, and beyond.
SpaceX will launch a Super Heavy-Starship on Thursday, at 5 pm EST, from its Boca Chica manufacturing and testing center.
The Super Heavy booster, after lifting the Starship from the lower atmosphere will return to the launch pad and giant mechanical arms will try to pull it out of mid-air. The upper stage of the Starship will then loop around the globe, launching 10 mockup Starlink Satellites, before a simulation landing in the Indian Ocean.
Since 2019, 225 Falcon 9 launches have launched 7,700 Starlink satellites, with thousands more planned. It has already acquired millions of customers in the world. This gives it an advantage over competitors.
It remains to be determined how Blue Origin, SpaceX and other rocket builders will compete with SpaceX’s Falcon-family of rockets and its Super Heavy-Starship.
Blue Origin has already a backlog in satellites that are awaiting launch. They also need to be certified before they can launch NASA probes, civilian satellites or payloads of high priority.
Amazon will launch 3,232 satellite relay stations, known as Project Kuiper, to compete directly with SpaceX Starlink.
Blue Origin has confirmed that it has ordered 80 launches of New Glenn boosters and rockets from the European consortium Arianespace and United Launch Alliance, as well as SpaceX, to put the data relay stations in orbit.
Limp stated, “I am very bullish on space in general.” “I believe there will be many winners in this sector. Blue, or SpaceX? I believe Blue will be present. There will also be companies we haven’t heard of before. “There’s an entrepreneur who hasn’t yet started a space firm that will be at the table.”
