Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket successfully launched into space from Florida, marking a significant milestone for Jeff Bezos’s space company. The 98-meter (321.5-foot) rocket, standing as tall as a 30-story building, features a reusable first stage. It lifted off from Blue Origin’s launchpad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station around 2 a.m. (07:00 GMT) in the company’s second attempt this week after a previous scrub due to ice forming on a propellant line.
The mission, a decade-long, multibillion-dollar venture, saw the first-stage booster make a successful landing in the Atlantic Ocean while the second stage continued its journey toward orbit. This flight represents the company’s first foray beyond suborbital space tourism, where Blue Origin has focused its efforts until now.
Jeff Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, expressed his primary concern about the mission in a pre-launch interview with Reuters, saying, “The thing we’re most nervous about is the booster landing.” New Glenn’s development, which has spanned three different Blue Origin CEOs, faced several delays, especially as Elon Musk’s SpaceX surged ahead with its highly successful and reusable Falcon 9 rocket, the most frequently launched rocket in the world.
