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Blue Origin, the space exploration company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has successfully launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit on Thursday, achieving a critical milestone in the company’s bid to rival SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk.

The rocket which was named after astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:03 a.m. Eastern Time (0703 GMT) fueled by liquid oxygen and methane.

The livestreamed launch showed the 320-foot-tall rocket crossing the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. Blue Origin has officially confirmed that its primary mission objective—reaching orbit—was successful.

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1880073731940446710?t=HQY6vbc7Yiv3E9KQDuklOw&s=09

The launch signifies Blue Origin’s formal entry into the orbital space industry, positioning it as a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. However Musk, whose company dominates the commercial space sector, congratulated Bezos on social media, writing: “Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt @jeffbezos.”

While the rocket achieved its primary goal of delivering a payload into orbit, the mission encountered a setback when the booster, humorously nicknamed “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance?”, failed to land on its designated drone ship, Jacklyn, stationed 620 miles offshore. Despite this, the second stage of the rocket successfully deployed the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a prototype spacecraft designed to test systems for future missions.

The Blue Ring Pathfinder will gather data on tracking, communications, and power systems, contributing to Blue Origin’s plans for futuristic advanced space missions.

The New Glenn rocket is designed to compete in the high-stakes orbital launch market with plans to support other projects such as Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a satellite network for global internet coverage, and U.S. Department of Defense missions.

Blue Origin has also secured a NASA contract to build the Blue Moon lunar lander for the Artemis program, which aims to deliver astronauts to the Moon.

video credit: AFP

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