New Glenn Rocket launch challenges Elon Musk’s space dominance

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos space company has blasted its first rocket into orbit in a bid to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX dominance.

The New Glenn rocket was launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time (07:02 GMT).

It pits two of the world’s richest people against each other in a commercial space race, racing to launch the biggest and most powerful rockets.

All of them want to fill the sky with more satellites, operate secret stations, and provide transportation for people to the Moon.

“Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt!” Musk wrote a post to Bezos on X.

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

“We’ll learn more from today and test again for our next spring launch,” he added.

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

Blue Origin workers and crowds gathered near Cape Canaveral cheered as the 98-meter-high rocket blasted into orbit.

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

We hoped that the booster would be used for future restarts but after 20 minutes of flight, the company confirmed that it had lost the engine.

Bezos’ company Blue Origin has struggled to match the speed set by SpaceX. But this launch will be seen as a big step forward for the business.

The New Glenn rocket is named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth 60 years ago.

The rocket is more powerful than SpaceX’s most used Falcon 9. It can also carry more satellites, and Bezos wants to use it as part of his Project Kuiper, which aims to send thousands of satellites down to provide broadband services. .

The project would compete directly with Musk’s Starlink project.

Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin 25 years ago, saying that he wants “millions of people to work and live in space.”

Over the years the mission has sent a small, reusable rocket called New Shepard into the outer reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. It carried passengers and payloads, including Bezos himself in 2021.

But Blue Origin has had more success than SpaceX, which launched its rockets 134 times last year.

And SpaceX’s new rocket, called Starship, is very powerful. The company expects to launch its seventh test flight later today.

Some experts say a successful New Glenn rocket will create real competition between the two companies and could lower the cost of space travel.

“What you’re seeing is that the two companies are competing to get ahead,” says Dr Simeon Barber of the UK’s Open University.

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

But the US space agency NASA is moving away from relying solely on public funding and has awarded large contracts to private companies to provide rockets and other space missions.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already received billions of dollars worth of contracts.

His close relationship with the next US president, Donald Trump, could also boost his company.