By Chandan Khanna and Maggy Donaldson, AFP
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket lifts off for its second mission. Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has successfully launched its New Glenn rocket with NASA twin spacecraft destined for Mars aboard and, in a breakthrough, nailed the landing of its booster.
The launch was stalled for days over weather, both on Earth and in space, but it was worth the wait - in the rocket's second-ever flight, Blue Origin managed to recover the booster for re-use.
Ecstatic cheers rang out at the launch site in Florida's Cape Canaveral, as the booster gracefully stuck its landing on a floating platform. Before Thursday, only Elon Musk's SpaceX had managed to accomplish such a manoeuvre with an orbital-class rocket.
Blue Origin's accomplishment comes amid intensified rivalry between the two billionaire-owned private space companies, as the US space agency NASA recently opened up bids for its planned Moon mission.
"Damn, that was exciting!" said Jared Isaacman - a Musk ally, who President Donald Trump recently nominated again to head NASA - on X, congratulating Blue Origin.
A handful of figures at SpaceX also had praise for their rivals, including Musk himself.
"Congratulations @JeffBezos and the @BlueOrigin team!" he said on X.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. Photo: AFP / STEFANO RELLANDINI
The launch was repeatedly delayed - on Sunday over weather on Earth and on Wednesday over weather in space.
The second postponement was over "highly elevated solar activity" that NASA worried could impact or damage its spacecraft.
Glitches meant delays yet again on Thursday - hold-ups Blue Origin did not explain - but at 3.55pm, New Glenn finally blasted off.
The 98m rocket now has the task of sending NASA's ESCAPADE twin spacecraft to Mars in a bid to study the Red Planet's climate history, with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Applause resounded once more, as the spacecraft successfully deployed.
NASA heliophysicist Joseph Westlake explained during Thursday's webcast how the twin spacecraft named 'Blue' and 'Gold' would first find a "benign, safe parking orbit" to make "measurements about the space weather here on Earth".
Then, once the planets had reached the ideal alignment in the fall of 2026, the spacecraft would get a boost from Earth's gravity and begin the journey to Mars, where it would arrive in 2027.
This type of launch could allow for more frequent missions in the future, because they could proceed outside the window of direct alignment of Earth and Mars that happens approximately once every two years.
'Launch, land, repeat'
New Glenn's inaugural flight in January also was marked a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests, but its first-stage booster, which was meant to be re-usable, was lost during descent.
Thursday's achievement signals that Blue Origin is on its way to reducing costs by re-using boosters, rather than allowing them to plummet into the ocean.
"Launch, land, repeat - it starts today," said Eddie Seyffert, among Blue Origin's webcast commentators.
US President Donald Trump's second term in the White House has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon, amid a race with China.
George Nield - a senior aerospace executive, whose work promotes the commercial space industry and who has flown with Blue Origin in the past - told AFP this launch would be an "indicator" of the company's progress.
It could show "whether they can play increased roles in near-term lunar exploration", he said.
- AFP
