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Blue Origin's towering New Glenn rocket, owned by Jeff Bezos, successfully completed its first major test flight on Thursday. Launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station just before 4 p.m. ET, the mission carried a pair of satellites that are now beginning their long, winding trip to Mars.
Blue Origin also landed the first stage of the rocket back on a seafaring platform for the first time, marking a monumental stride forward in the company’s efforts to make the New Glenn rocket reusable, less expensive, and a better competitor for Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Blue Origin had been slated to launch the NASA mission, called Escapade, on Sunday, but cloud cover resulted in the decision to postpone liftoff. The company then had to work with the Federal Aviation Administration, which recently implemented a ban on most rocket launches during daylight hours amid the government shutdown, to find a new opportunity to take off.
The launch of Escapade — short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration Dynamics Explorers — marked the first flight for New Glenn with a customer payload onboard. The rocket completed its inaugural flight in January carrying Blue Origin-made demonstration technology in its cargo bay.
During that January mission, the company failed to recover New Glenn’s first-stage booster, which is the bottommost portion of the rocket that gives the vehicle its initial burst of power at liftoff.
Blue Origin attributed the failed attempt to engines that did not properly reignite. But the company did not appear to experience any such issues Thursday, as New Glenn’s first stage made a clean touchdown on a seafaring barge named Jacklyn after Bezos’ mother.
Much like Blue Origin’s chief competitor, SpaceX — which has long been a dominant force in the commercial launch business — New Glenn is designed to be partially reused in order to drive down costs.
