Finally, after 25 years since the founding of Blue Origin, one of Amazon creator Jeff Bezos’ companies focused on space, they have managed to take off their New Glenn rocket for the first time to seriously enter the space race and compete with Elon. Musk “the prize” of collaborating with NASA on its space missions.
It has cost, since There have been up to four postponements of this rocket reusable 98 meters high, which this Thursday successfully completed its first test mission by taking off this past morning of January 16 from a platform at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Center, in Florida (USA), with destination to low Earth orbit, which the second phase reached after 12 minutes.
Blue Origin assured that Its main objective for tonight was to get into orbit above all and yet the first stage began its controlled descent and was close to landing.
The success of the NG-1 mission, It is the first step for this new range of Blue Origin rockets to obtain the necessary certifications that allow it to undertake National Security missions of the United States Government.as well as transporting satellites and other heavy loads for private clients.
And it is that NASA is looking for a new partner for its space missions to Mars, and although in principle the objective was to begin this mission in October 2024, not even Musk’s Falcon rockets, much less Bezos’s New Glenn, were ready.
But the truth is that in recent months both companies have made great progress, and this launch that took place this morning has achieved something that Elon Musk’s Starship rocket (the largest and most powerful in history) has not yet attempted.
Although mission control confirmed that it had lost the first stage of the rocket, which should have landed on a boat in the Atlantic, this aspect was not crucial to the success of the mission. Although it is true that it will be in subsequent tests, since One of the requirements is that these warehouses be recyclable (in order to reduce costs) Therefore, it is important that the pieces can be recovered and do not end up at the bottom of the sea or destroyed as has happened until now.
This space race is very close, and in fact the other ship that competes with this one, Musk’s Starship plans to carry out another test takeoff this Thursday, January 16with which he will try to eclipse the achievement of New Glenn.
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