On January 16, after several delays, Jeff Bezos’s space company conducted its first orbital launch (previously only suborbital), sending the second stage of the New Glenn rocket into orbit.
At 09:04 Kyiv time, the rocket launched from the pad at the Space Force station at Cape Canaveral, and three minutes later successfully completed the stage separation phase — however, the first stage, which was initially supposed to land on the floating platform Jacklyn in the Atlantic Ocean, was lost after some time (the company promised to share details soon).
Meanwhile, the second stage ignited its two BE-3U engines and continued its ascent into orbit. Thirteen minutes after launch, it reached orbital velocity, extinguished the engines, and ultimately completed the main objective of this mission, named NG-1.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 16, 2025
In its first test launch, New Glenn took off with a payload — a prototype of the Blue Ring transport vehicle, which could move satellites around Earth’s orbit (for this launch, it will remain attached to the second stage for six hours of the mission, during which the communication equipment will be tested).
Blue Origin was founded in 2000, but to date has a very modest list of achievements: launches into space were conducted, but not into orbit. The company’s small transport vehicle, New Shepard, delivers space tourists to the edge of space (these flights are called suborbital) — effectively it just rises and falls like a roller coaster, with a speed that is zero at the top of the arc.
New Glenn — a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle, which is 98 meters tall (slightly taller than the Statue of Liberty) and has a diameter of 7 meters. The first stage has 7 BE-4 engines, which run on a methane/liquid oxygen mix, and is designed to be reusable.
The rocket is capable of carrying 50 tons of payload to low Earth orbit. For comparison, Falcon Heavy from SpaceX, which also has reusable first stage boosters, can lift about 70 tons.
Blue Origin plans to conduct 6-8 test launches of New Glenn in 2025 — the next one is likely to happen in the spring.
Remember, today also marks the seventh test flight of SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship (featuring a new version) — currently the largest in the world, standing approximately 123 meters tall. The team hopes to replicate the success of the October launch and land the first stage “in the hands” of the Mechazilla tower.
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