Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket had its inaugural flight, marking a significant milestone for the company in the space industry
The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida around 2 a.m. It was carrying an experimental payload made for a Defense Innovation Unit program.
Blue Origin said, “New Glenn is foundational to advancing our customers’ critical missions as well as our own.” They’re looking to establish a human presence on the Moon and create logistics services in space.
They had hoped to recover the rocket’s first-stage booster by landing it on a drone ship in the Atlantic, but unfortunately, they lost it during descent.
This launch has been a long time coming for Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos. They initially planned to debut the rocket in 2020, but development issues pushed that back. Now, they’re on track for commercial and NASA missions, plus they need to get certified to carry national security payloads for the U.S. Space Force.
Blue Origin is gearing up to compete with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for military missions worth up to $5.6 billion over the next five years. But they need at least one more successful flight to be eligible for that.
This summer, the Space Force picked Blue Origin as part of its new launch strategy called NSSL Phase 3. They’ve set up two lanes for competition: one for commercial-like missions and another for companies with stricter security and performance standards.
Blue Origin is also in the running for the second lane. In 2023 and 2024, the Space Force has given them over $950 million to see if their systems can meet government needs.
The experimental payload they launched today is part of the Blue Ring Pathfinder project, which aims to show they can provide logistics services like refueling and transport in space.
The goal is for Blue Ring to become a heavy utility vehicle that can move payloads or spacecraft to different orbits. The payload from today’s mission will help test communication and tracking systems for future Blue Ring vehicles.
Paul Ebertz, Blue Origin’s senior vice president for in-space systems, said, “This mission is an important first step for Blue Ring and enabling dynamic operations that will greatly benefit our nation.”
