If successful, New Glenn will position Blue Origin to successfully compete with SpaceX for launching satellites—and eventually humans—into space.
Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s commercial space company Blue Origin is preparing for the inaugural launch of its massive New Glenn Rocket on Jan. 12 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
This launch will mark the rocket’s first journey into orbit, challenging Elon Musk’s SpaceX dominance in the U.S. commercial space industry.
Standing 30 stories high, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has been a central focus for the company since its inception in 2000. The multi-billion dollar project aims to rival the market hold of SpaceX in launching satellites and humans into space.
If New Glenn proves successful, it will begin launching satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper broadband internet constellation, potentially competing with SpaceX’s Starlink network.
While Blue Origin has previously launched and landed its smaller New Shepard rocket, reaching orbit has remained a goal for the company since its founding 25 years ago. New Glenn represents a significant milestone in this pursuit.
The launch is scheduled for 1 a.m. on Sunday from Blue Origin’s launchpad in Cape Canaveral, aiming to send the Blue Ring satellite into orbit. Blue Ring is designed for national security missions and satellite servicing in space.
New Glenn boasts twice the power of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, with a larger payload bay for heavier satellite loads. While Falcon 9 costs around $62 million per launch, New Glenn’s pricing has not been disclosed.
SpaceX’s Starship craft, with a fully reusable system, is more powerful than New Glenn and is undergoing tests for deploying mock satellites.
If successful, Blue Origin has already secured launch contracts with companies like Eutelsat’s OneWeb, Telesat from Canada, and AST SpaceMobile.
After liftoff, New Glenn’s reusable rocket core stage will attempt its first return on a drone ship, following SpaceX’s successful core stage landings.
New Glenn faces competition from ULA’s Vulcan rocket, with ULA planning to develop a stronger version in the future.
Sunday’s launch is crucial for New Glenn’s certification by the U.S. Space Force to launch national security payloads. Blue Origin aims to secure these missions in a procurement competition later this year.
Reuters contributed to this report.
