CAPE CANAVERAL: Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its massive New Glenn rocket into orbit for the first time early Thursday, marking a new step in the commercial space race. The rocket, whose inaugural mission had been delayed by several years, blasted off at 2:03 am from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the US state of Florida, a live webcast showed.
The mission is seen as critical to Blue Origin's efforts to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX, which dominates the commercial space industry.
"LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first ever ascent towards the stars," Blue Origin said on social media platform X.
"New Glenn has passed the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary of space!" the firm posted just a few minutes later.
Blue Origin said in a statement that the second-stage engine had reached "its final orbit", adding that the Blue Ring advanced spaceship prototype that was along for the ride was "receiving data and performing well."
The first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, was lost during descent, it added.
"I'm incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt," said the company's CEO, Dave Limp, in the statement.
"We knew landing our booster... on the first try was an ambitious goal. We'll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring."
Blue Origin had intended to land the booster — powered by liquid methane and designed for up to 25 flights — on a drone ship stationed about 1,000 kilometres downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.
Rival SpaceX has made such landings now routine, but this would have been Blue Origin's first shot at the feat.
Fellow billionaire Musk commended Bezos on New Glenn's inaugural launch, offering congratulations "on reaching orbit on the first attempt" in a post on his X platform. Upping the high-stakes rivalry, SpaceX is planning another orbital test later on Thursday of Starship — its gargantuan new-generation rocket.
An initial test launch of the towering 98-metre rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honour of American astronaut John Glenn, had been scrubbed early Monday after repeated halts during the countdown. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
