Bezos’ Blue Origin launches huge rocket for milestone Mars mission
In a remarkable first, Jeff Bezos’ company successfully recovered the New Glenn booster, matching the cost-saving achievement by rival SpaceX
Blue Origin launched its huge New Glenn rocket on Thursday with a pair of Nasa spacecraft destined for Mars.
It was only the second flight of the rocket that Jeff Bezos’ company and Nasa were counting on to get people and supplies to the moon - and it was a complete success.
The almost 100-metre New Glenn blasted into the afternoon sky from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending Nasa’s twin Mars orbiters on a drawn-out journey to the red planet. Lift-off was stalled four days by lousy local weather as well as solar storms strong enough to paint the skies with auroras as far south as Florida.
In a remarkable first, Blue Origin recovered the booster following its separation from the upper stage and the Mars orbiters, an essential step to recycle and slash costs similar to SpaceX. Company employees cheered wildly as the booster landed upright on a barge 600km (375 miles) offshore. An ecstatic Bezos watched the action from Launch Control.
“Next stop, moon!” employees chanted following the booster’s bull’s-eye landing. Twenty minutes later, the rocket’s upper stage deployed the two Mars orbiters in space, the mission’s main objective. Congratulations poured in from Nasa officials as well as SpaceX’s Elon Musk, whose booster landings were routine.
New Glenn’s inaugural test flight in January delivered a prototype satellite to orbit, but failed to land the booster on its floating platform in the Atlantic.