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Blue-Origin rocket
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket achieved orbit in its inaugural mission, a milestone for the Jeff Bezos-owned company and the commercial space sector. Blue Origin is competing against Elon Musk-owned SpaceX in the reusable rocket sector.
Lift-off occurred earlier yesterday (16 January) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the US state of Florida after previous attempts were abandoned due to weather conditions and a vehicle subsystem issue, reports Mobileworldlive.
Blue Origin stated its Blue Ring Pathfinder payload is now operational and relaying data.
On its website, Blue Origin explained the payload was developed by its in-space systems business unit to test core flight and ground systems, and operational capabilities.
The payload is part of a US government defence innovation unit.
Although the company got New Glenn off the ground, it failed to recover its reusable first-stage booster to a platform at sea.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp stated the company knew landing the booster at sea on the first attempt was ambitious, but said it will try again at its next launch in the coming months.
The company has lofty goals for New Glenn, including using it to establish a sustained human presence on Mars, a vision shared by Elon Musk.
Blue Origin is also using the rocket in NASA’s Artemis programme for a Moon landing.
The company counts AST SpaceMobile and Amazon’s Project Kuiper among its customers, along with several unnamed communications service providers.
It is also certifying New Glenn with the US Space Force for the National Security Space Launch programme.
-mobileworldlive
