Yesterday Jeff Bezos’s space company sent its first rocket into orbit.
The launch was a major success for Blue Origin, Bezos’s rocket company, and may quiet critics who say that the company has been too slow, compared with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Blue Origin had not sent a single rocket into orbit since the company was founded nearly a quarter century ago.
The New Glenn rocket may offer long-awaited competition for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, which currently dominate the launch industry.
The New Glenn is a bit taller than the Statue of Liberty. It can lift 45 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, and possesses a greater payload volume than other rockets currently in operation. It carried a prototype of Blue Ring, a vehicle being developed to move payloads to different orbits after they go to space.
The New Glenn’s booster stage, intended to be reusable, failed in its attempt to land on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean.
Blue Origin’s mascot is a tortoise.
[Photo: Blue Origin]