Key insights
- Blue Origin successfully reused its New Glenn rocket booster, a step towards catching up with SpaceX. While a positive milestone, the satellite payload reached an 'off-nominal orbit'. This event highlights increasing competition in the space industry, potentially benefiting companies involved in space technology and satellite communications. However, the satellite issue introduces a note of caution.
Jeff Bezos’s space business Blue Origin has successfully reused one of its heavy rockets for the first time, taking a major leap towards catching up with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The Amazon billionaire’s New Glenn rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Sunday afternoon, carrying a satellite into orbit.
The rocket’s booster, which had already been used once on an earlier mission, then returned to touch down on a floating landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the first time Blue Origin has successfully reused and then landed a New Glenn heavy booster.
The practice of reusing rocket engines to bring down launch costs was pioneered by Mr Musk’s SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 rockets have undertaken hundreds of missions while recycling old boosters.
Mr Bezos and Mr Musk have a long rivalry of one-upmanship in the space industry. Both billionaires founded their rocket companies around the same time more than 25 years ago.
Both have sought to develop rockets that can be used multiple times and have launched satellite networks intended to cover the planet in a web of communications satellites. Both men are also planning to fire AI data centres into space.
Mr Musk has repeatedly accused Mr Bezos of copying his own space endeavours.
Mr Bezos’s 322ft New Glenn rocket, which is substantially larger than Falcon 9 and can carry much larger payloads, has been designed to be able to reuse boosters. However, it has taken many years to develop and suffered several delayed missions.
Sunday’s mission was New Glenn’s third successful launch, although it failed to successfully carry its satellite payload to its intended orbit.
The rocket blasted off at 7.25am local time after a short delay, with the booster – called “Never Tell Me The Odds” – landing safely about 10 minutes later.
However, Blue Origin confirmed the satellite had been powered on but “placed into an off-nominal orbit”, technical speak for being in the wrong place. It was a telecoms satellite from AST, intended to carry mobile signals for companies including Vodafone.
Blue Origin, which was founded by Mr Bezos in 2000 and has been entirely bankrolled by the former Amazon boss, first started work on New Glenn more than a decade ago.
The company’s New Glenn heavy rocket made its debut in January last year and successfully landed its booster rocket back on Earth on its second mission in November last year.
Sunday’s mission was the first to successfully land a rocket that had been used before.
Mr Musk’s SpaceX is currently racing to complete development of its rival Starship system. The 400ft-tall superheavy spacecraft is intended to be fully reusable and is planned to help transport the first humans to the Moon in more than 50 years.
SpaceX memorably caught a rocket booster returning to Earth during a test flight in October 2024.
@SpaceX
However, SpaceX has been grappling with a series of delays and Nasa is now reviewing its plans for the Artemis moon landings. It has pushed back the timeline for returning astronauts to the lunar surface to 2028.
That mission, Artemis IV, will now rely on either Mr Musk’s Starship landing system or a rival lunar lander, Blue Moon, being developed by Mr Bezos’s Blue Origin.
Nasa has also picked Blue Origin’s New Glenn to carry the lunar landing system for its fifth planned Artemis mission, the second such flight that will take humans to the Moon in late 2028.