Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company has blasted its first rocket into orbit in a bid to challenge the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The New Glenn rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time (07:02 GMT). It firmly pits the world’s two richest men against each other in a commercial space race, vying to fly bigger and more powerful rockets. Both want to populate the skies with more satellites, run private space stations, and provide transport for regular trips by people to the Moon.
Bezos’s team overcame technical barriers that caused delays earlier this week when ice formation halted a launch. Blue Origin’s employees and crowds gathered near Cape Canaveral cheered as the 98 meters-high rocket hurtled into orbit. But the company failed to land New Glenn’s main rocket engine, or booster, onto a platform in the Atlantic Ocean. It had hoped that the booster would be reusable for future launches but after about 20 minutes of flight, the company confirmed it had lost the engine.
Bezos’s company Blue Origin has struggled to match the pace set by SpaceX. But this launch will be seen as a major step forward for the business. The New Glenn rocket was named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth more than 60 years ago. The rocket is more powerful than SpaceX’s most commonly-used rocket, the Falcon 9. It can also carry more satellites, and Bezos wants to use it as part of his Project Kuiper, which aims to deploy thousands of low-earth satellites to provide broadband services.
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