Jeff Bezos’ 24-year-old space technology company Blue Origin sent its first rocket into orbit on Thursday morning off of Florida’s Space Coast.
The 320-foot-tall rocket was named New Glenn after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. It was taller than the Statue of Liberty and powered by seven engines. According to the New York Times, New Glenn took off at 2:03 a.m. from Cape Canaveral in Florida and reached orbit about 13 minutes later.
The flight was a first for Blue Origin. The company deemed it a major success, writing in a post on X on Thursday that it was “thrilled with today’s outcome.” Though delays due to system issues pushed the flight day from Monday to Thursday, the eventual launch positioned Blue Origin to better compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which launched 134 times in 2024.
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Blue Origin stated in a post on X that the purpose of the flight was to reach orbit.
“This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” the company wrote, adding that anything beyond reaching orbit was “icing on the cake.”
To reiterate our objectives—this is our first flight, and we’ve prepared rigorously for it. But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations is a replacement for flying this rocket. Our key objective today is to reach orbit safely. Anything beyond that is icing on the… pic.twitter.com/LSt0GoZXkj— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) January 16, 2025
Bezos posted multiple videos on X of the launch.
pic.twitter.com/o6sMiSABkR— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 16, 2025
pic.twitter.com/kIEqPxxwa7— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 16, 2025
Blue Origin had a stretch goal to land the rocket’s reusable first-stage booster on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean but was unable to reach that objective after the booster was lost during reentry.
“We lost the booster during descent,” Blue Origin stated in another X post. We knew landing the first stage on the first try was ambitious. We’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch in the spring.”
Blue Origin hopes to do more launches this year. New Glenn is reusable and the engines and propellants supporting its first flight stage are designed for at least 25 flights, according to Blue Origin’s website.
Related: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Aims to Build Massive Commercial Space Station
