Blue Origin Sticks First New Glenn Rocket Landing and Launches NASA Spacecraft (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0180067490
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/11/13/2211216/blue-origin-sticks-first-new-glenn-rocket-landing-and-launches-nasa-spacecraft
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/13/blue-origin-sticks-first-new-glenn-rocket-landing-and-launches-nasa-spacecraft/
> Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has [1]landed the booster of its New Glenn mega-rocket on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean on just its second attempt -- making it the second company to perform such a feat, following Elon Musk's SpaceX. It's an accomplishment that will help the new rocket system become an option to send larger payloads to space, the Moon, and beyond. Thursday's launch wasn't just about the landing attempt, though. Roughly 34 minutes after takeoff, the upper stage of New Glenn successfully deployed the rocket's first commercial payload: twin spacecraft for NASA that will travel to Mars to study the red planet's atmosphere. The pair of achievements are remarkable for the second-ever launch of such a massive rocket system. And it could put Blue Origin in position to compete with SpaceX, which dominates the world's launch market with its Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship rockets.
You can watch a recording of the launch [2]here .
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/13/blue-origin-sticks-first-new-glenn-rocket-landing-and-launches-nasa-spacecraft/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/live/iheyXgtG7EI?si=cYyGFsDRmN4w0BgS&t=14220
And then there were two (Score:3)
I hope the Mars portion is just as successful. It will be good to provide Space X with some completion. Even better that the competition is another domestic company.
Re: (Score:2)
> I hope the Mars portion is just as successful. It will be good to provide Space X with some completion. Even better that the competition is another domestic company.
And better still that it's two giant egos behind the companies that already clash sometimes. That type of rivalry can sometimes create innovations that wouldn't naturally occur without that form of competition.
Well done!! (Score:3)
Congratulations to Blue Origin and the people who surely worked their asses off to make this happen!
Re: (Score:2)
+1 This is a big milestone for them.
Too little, too late? (Score:2)
It's good to see that another US company has achieved booster landing, however I don't think Blue Origin will be much, if any, of a competitor at all. It took BO 25 years to achieve this, a full 9 years after SpaceX landed on their first ocean platform and 10 years after SpaceX's first successful booster landing. Starship is going to put New Glenn out of business very soon and I don't see Blue Origin having the industrial mindset to design and build new rockets quickly. Falcon 9 is already a proven and much
Re: (Score:2)
Not usually how markets work. You'll have the "ground breakers" which is Space X in this instance. They do most of the heavy lifting (pardon the pun) to develop a new product or service. Once they show it can be done, the copy cats enter the market. Their development will be much less because now they know how to do it.
Obviously building rockets isn't cheap and won't get much competition but there's obviously a huge market for it.
Not saying BO will succeed long term, just pointing out that being the
Cost per KG compared to Falcon 9 / Heavy? (Score:2)
I cant imagine its a cheap as SpaceX is now, but I think Bezos has the gas to discount launch costs until they have pricing parity. Competition breeds innovation. This is good news. However, when Starship is doing payloads, it may make this unprofitable again.