New Glenn Rocket Launch Challenges Elon Musk’s Space Dominance

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 was launched from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida at 2:02 a.m. local time (07:02 GMT).

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

Both want to populate the sky with more satellites, operate private space stations and provide transportation for people regularly traveling to the Moon.

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

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

“We will learn a lot from today and try again during our next launch this spring,” he added.

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

Blue Origin employees and crowds gathered near Cape Canaveral cheered as the 300-foot-tall rocket rocketed into orbit.

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

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

Bezos’ company Blue Origin has struggled to keep up with the pace set by SpaceX. But this launch will be considered a major step forward for the company.

The New Glenn rocket is 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, and Bezos wants to use it as part of his Project Kuiper, which aims to deploy thousands of Earth satellites to provide broadband. services.

This project would directly compete 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, the company 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 was significantly outperformed 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 hopes to launch it on its seventh test flight later today.

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

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

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

But the US space agency NASA is increasingly moving away from public money alone and has awarded huge 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 business.