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Science|Roar of New Glenn’s Engines Silences Skeptics of Bezos’ Blue Origin
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/science/bezos-blue-origin-launch.html
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The successful flight to orbit of the Amazon founder’s powerful rocket suggests it could grow into a credible competitor with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
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Blue Origin Launches New Glenn Rocket
New Glenn, named after the astronaut John Glenn, successfully lifted off early Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Liftoff. All seven engines at full thrust. One minute into flight. Now passing one minute 30 seconds into flight. Passing mach one. New Glenn is now supersonic.
Kenneth Chang first reported on Blue Origin’s plans for space in 2010.
- Jan. 16, 2025, 11:58 a.m. ET
On Thursday morning, at a time when most people in the United States were sleeping, Jeff Bezos’ space company sent its first rocket into orbit.
At 2:03 a.m. Eastern time, seven powerful engines ignited at the base of a 320-foot-tall rocket named New Glenn. The flames illuminated night into day at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket, barely moving at first, nudged upward and then accelerated in an arc over the Atlantic Ocean, lit up in blue, the color of combustion of the rocket’s methane fuel.
Thirteen minutes later, the second stage of New Glenn reached orbit.
The launch was a major success for Blue Origin, Mr. Bezos’ rocket company. It should quiet critics who say that the company has been too slow compared with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has dominated global spaceflight industry in recent years. New Glenn could prove a credible competitor with Mr. Musk’s company and win launch contracts from NASA and the Department of Defense, as well as commercial contracts.
For at least one moment, however, the two richest people in the world warmly cheered each other.
“Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt!” Mr. Musk wrote on X, the social media site that he owns.
“Thank you!” Mr. Bezos replied.
Mr. Bezos posted a series of pictures and videos. “Beautiful,” Mr. Musk commented on one of the images.
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