Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Reaches Orbit in First Attempt

The rocket’s upper stage reached orbit, which was the main goal of the test flight, but an attempt to land the first-stage booster failed.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket Reaches Orbit in First Attempt
The Blue Origin New Glenn rocket lifts off in Cape Canaveral, Florida. on Jan. 16, 2025. Photo by Miguel J. Rodríguez Carrillo/Getty Images
Katabella Roberts
Updated:
0:00

Blue Origin, the space technology company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its New Glenn rocket for the first time on Jan. 15, sending a prototype satellite into orbit thousands of miles above Earth.

Named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, the 320-foot-tall, two-stage rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:03 a.m. ET under cloudy skies.

The culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey, the rocket is fitted with a reusable first-stage booster filled with liquid oxygen and methane.

Secured inside its payload bay is the prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft that the company hopes to sell to the Pentagon and commercial customers for satellite servicing missions.

In a post on X before liftoff, Blue Origin said it had “prepared rigorously” for the launch and that its objective for the first flight was simply “to reach orbit safely.”

“Anything beyond that is icing on the cake,” the company said. “No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”

In a series of follow-up posts on X shortly after takeoff, Blue Origin confirmed the mission, called NG-1, had been a success, and its second and payload were in orbit.

The second stage engine cutoff was then confirmed.

“GS2 [New Glenn’s second stage] and our Blue Ring Pathfinder achieved their final target orbit,” Blue Origin wrote.
The company shared a livestream of the launch in which employees at its headquarters and its Cape Canaveral, Florida rocket factory could be seen reacting to the successful launch with jubilant cheers.

Locals on Florida’s east coast also cheered from parks and campsites several miles from the launchpad upon liftoff.

Blue Origin’s Vice President of In-Space Systems Ariane Cornell said, “We hit our key, critical, number-one objective, we got to orbit safely. And y'all we did it on our first go.”

The rocket’s reusable first-stage booster was scheduled to land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after separating from its second stage, but it failed to do so, Cornell confirmed. Telemetry from the booster blacked out minutes after liftoff.

“We did in fact lose the booster,” Cornell said.

New Glenn lifts off during the NG-1 mission at LC-36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on Jan. 16, 2025. (Courtesy of Blue Origin)
New Glenn lifts off during the NG-1 mission at LC-36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on Jan. 16, 2025. Courtesy of Blue Origin
The successful launch comes after an earlier launch scheduled to take place on Jan. 13 was canceled due to a technical issue.

At the time, the company said that ice had accumulated on a propellant line and that it was working to troubleshoot the issue ahead of the next attempt.

Blue Origin’s successful launch of the New Glenn marks an important step for Bezos’s space company, which was founded in 2000 and aims to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the satellite launch business.

SpaceX has launched both satellites and humans into space using its Falcon 9 rocket and other spacecraft.

Musk congratulated the firm for reaching orbit on the first attempt in a post on X.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Katabella Roberts
Katabella Roberts
Author
Katabella Roberts is a news writer for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States, world, and business news.