Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space project explained as New Glenn rocket lift-off delayed
The 30-storey tall and partly reusable New Glenn rocket was sitting on Blue Origin’s launchpad in Florida ready for liftoff.
A spokesperson for Blue Origin explained the mission had been postponed to give the team more time to work on the subsystem issue after a “few anomalies” during the mission countdown.
On social media site X, Bezos’s team wrote: “We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.”
Founded in 2000 by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin is a space and technology company aiming to increase human access to space.
It is headquartered in Washington DC, and its achievements to date include operating the autonomous and suborbital New Shepard rocket, producing reusable liquid rocket engines and returning to the surface of the moon.
Blue Origin successfully completed its ninth crewed spaceflight last November and, to date, the company has flown 47 people to space – and three people have flown twice.
Blue Origin’s planned launch of New Glenn, named after John Glenn (the first American to orbit Earth) has been postponed.
In late 2023, Bezos moved to speed things up at Blue Origin, prioritising the development of New Glenn and its BE-4 engines. He named Dave Limp, an Amazon veteran, as chief executive, who employees have reportedly said introduced a sense of urgency to help the company compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is turning his attention to space travel with the Blue Origin project
Reuters
What is New Glenn-1 doing?
The delay facing New Glenn’s liftoff could be at least 24 hours as the company examines a troubleshoot subsystem. The delay was announced on Monday morning, after the rocket had been loaded with methane and liquid oxygen propellants.
A culmination of a decade-long, multibillion-dollar development journey, the flight, whenever it does occur, will include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first stage booster on a seafaring barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after liftoff. Its second stage will continue toward orbit.
Blue Origin said: “By operating like a commercial airliner (but with cleaner fuel), New Glenn will lead to significantly less waste and cost.”
What has Jeff Bezos said about the space project?
Bezos spoke about the space project in an interview with news agency Reuters.
“The thing we’re most nervous about is the booster landing,” Bezos said. “Clearly on a first flight you could have an anomaly at any mission phase, so anything could happen.”
Getting a spacecraft to its intended orbit on an inaugural rocket launch would be a rare achievement for a space company.
“If we could do that, that would be a great success,” Bezos said. “Landing the booster would be icing on the cake.”
The development of New Glenn has spanned three Blue Origin CEOs and faced numerous delays. Meanwhile, Musk’s SpaceX has cemented itself as a key player in the modern day space race with its reusable Falcon 9, the world’s most frequently used rocket.
