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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is preparing for the inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket from Florida early on Monday, nearing a pivotal debut in Earth orbit that will mark a major step towards a long-awaited goal of competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the satellite launch market.
The mission, which will blast off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, is the culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey, will include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first stage booster on a sea-fairing barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after liftoff, while the rocket’s second stage continues toward orbit.
“The thing we’re most nervous about is the booster landing,” Mr Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, said in a pre-launch interview. “Clearly on a first flight you could have an anomaly at any mission phase, so anything could happen.”
Secured inside New Glenn’s payload bay is the first prototype of Blue Origin‘s Blue Ring vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft the company plans to sell to the Pentagon and commercial customers for national security and satellite servicing missions.
Getting the spacecraft to its intended orbit on an inaugural rocket launch would be a rare achievement for a space company.
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