Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin launches New Glenn, taking on Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the race for orbital payload supremacy.
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| New Glenn’s debut flight marks Blue Origin’s bold challenge to SpaceX’s orbital dominance and sets new stakes in space exploration. Image shows the SpaceX starship. Image/ Illustration: ChicHue |
Hawthorne, California, USA — January 12, 2025:
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is poised to disrupt the commercial space industry with the maiden flight of its New Glenn rocket, a 320-foot behemoth designed for heavy payloads. Initially delayed due to rough seas, the launch is now set for early Monday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
New Glenn’s mission, dubbed NG-1, marks a direct challenge to Elon Musk's SpaceX, which has long dominated the orbital launch market with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Blue Origin’s maiden flight aims to demonstrate its capabilities, including an ambitious attempt to recover the first-stage booster on a drone ship named Jacklyn, honoring Bezos’s mother.
The rocket’s upper stage will carry a Defense Department-funded prototype spacecraft, Blue Ring, on a six-hour test flight. While recovering the booster would be a significant milestone, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp emphasized that achieving orbit remains the primary goal.
New Glenn’s design offers key advantages, such as a larger payload fairing compared to SpaceX’s Falcon rockets, ideal for bulkier cargo. Blue Origin already holds a NASA contract to launch Mars probes and plans to support Project Kuiper, a satellite internet initiative competing with SpaceX’s Starlink.
Founded in 2000, Blue Origin has followed a methodical approach, contrasting Musk’s “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy. Space policy experts believe a successful New Glenn launch would bolster U.S. space resilience by adding redundancy to the national launch infrastructure.
The timing of NG-1 is particularly symbolic, with SpaceX planning a Starship test the next day. As the rivalry intensifies, Bezos and Musk’s contrasting visions — Earth preservation versus Mars colonization — underscore the stakes in the modern space race.