Blue Origin launches massive New Glenn rocket, fails to land booster

New Delhi: After several delays, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin on Thursday successfully launched its massive New Glenn rocket, but failed land booster in the Atlantic.

New Glenn’s inaugural mission (NG-1) lifted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, US at 12.33 pm IST.

“LIFTOFF! New Glenn is beginning its first-ever ascent toward the stars,” the company said in a post on social media platform X.

“Second stage engine cutoff confirmed. New Glenn’s second stage and payload are now in orbit. Another burn coming up,” it added.

NG-1 is Blue Origin’s “first National Security Space Launch certification flight”. The company achieved its main aim of the mission — to reach orbit safely.

“We did it! Orbital. Great night for Team Blue. On to spring and trying again on the landing,” Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, posted on X while sharing a video of the launch.

Meanwhile, rival Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and founder also extended congratulations to Jeff Bezos for achieving the feat.

“Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt!,” Musk said on X.

However, its plans to make an “ambitious” landing of the booster on a landing platform in the Atlantic Ocean — the company’s first try offshore — was cut short.

The boost was lost during reentry into the atmosphere. “We lost the booster,” said the Blue Origin spokesperson during the live webcast. While New Glenn won’t deploy any satellites today, it is carrying a payload — Blue Ring Pathfinder. It is a test version of the company’s new “Blue Ring” spacecraft platform.

“The pathfinder will validate Blue Ring’s communications capabilities from orbit to ground,” Blue Origin wrote in a mission description last month.

Standing 98 metres tall, equivalent to the height of a 32-storey building, New Glenn is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built and launched.

It is named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits in 1962.

Originally targeted for a 2020 debut, the rocket faced years of delays.

Blue Origin aims to perform as many as 10 New Glenn launches this year.

–IANS