Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin has successfully launched its rocket into orbit on its first test flight.
New Glenn – described by Blue Origin as a “giant, reusable rocket” and designed for a minimum of 25 flights – was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early on Thursday morning.
As it happened: New Glenn blasts into space
Coming after a planned launch on Monday was delayed over a build-up of ice on the spacecraft, all seven of the rocket’s main engines successfully fired at lift-off at 2.03am (7.03am in the UK).
Watching from Mission Control nearby, Bezos and company employees broke out in cheers and applause as the rocket went orbital – the main objective of Blue Origin’s launch – around 10 minutes after launch.
Ariane Cornell, vice president of in-space systems for the company, said in a live stream that the launch was a “momentous step” and a “historic launch”.
“We hit our key, critical, number-one objective, we got to orbit safely,” she said. “And y’all, we did it on our first go.”
The second stage of the rocket is now gliding through orbit, carrying the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload, and its upper stage will later attempt to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up over a remote part of the ocean.
Elon Musk, head of rival company SpaceX, congratulated Blue Origin and Bezos “on reaching orbit on the first attempt”.
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‘Ambitious’ booster landing failed
Blue Origin also aimed to have New Glenn’s rocket booster return to a landing platform in the ocean so it could be recycled, but it failed to hit its mark.
The company said ahead of the launch that “landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious,” and Bezos told Reuters it would be the “icing on the cake” for the mission.
New Glenn is expected to make six to eight space flights this year if all goes well, Blue Origin added. The next launch is set for the spring.
Mr Bezos founded the space company in 2000. Since 2021, it has been launching smaller private flights to the edge of space.