5 things to know about New Glenn, Jeff Bezos' rocket that wants to overshadow SpaceX

© Blue Origin

On January 16, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket made its first flight in history, marking a significant step forward in the company's ambitions Jeff Bezos' spacecraft. Here's everything you need to know about the 320-foot-tall monster.

The Name of an Astronaut

This is the Blue Origin touch. The company's two launchers were named after astronauts who marked the great moments of the American conquest of space. New Shepard pays tribute to Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space and the fifth man to walk on the Moon. New Glenn is named after John Glenn, the first American to have made an orbital flight. When will the New Armstrong be available??

A reusable booster

SpaceX has revolutionized the launcher sector with reusable boosters, and Blue Origin is following in its footsteps. The first stage of New Glenn was designed to be able to carry out a maximum of 25 flights. To recover it, the firm has largely taken inspiration from its rival: the booster must land on a barge, which bears the name of Jeff Bezos' mother, in the middle of the ocean.

Fierce competition with SpaceX

Capable of carrying 45 tons of payload into low orbit, the New Glenn heavy rocket will directly compete with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, which has a payload capacity of 63.8 tons. This is all the more true since it is reusable like its rival, a feature that allows for much more attractive launch prices.

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It is also a battle of egos between two of the richest men on the planet, who do not hesitate to frequently take digs at each other on this subject. On the other hand, Starship, SpaceX's latest rocket, cannot really be compared to New Glenn because it is so much larger. According to Elon Musk, it will make humanity ” an interplanetary species “. Just that.

New Glenn reaches orbit on its very first flight

After 13 years of development and many delays, New Glenn took its first flight on January 16. A mission crowned with success, since the launcher managed to reach orbit, a real feat when you consider that it was its first takeoff. Its booster, however, did not manage to land on the barge that was in the Atlantic Ocean.

New Glenn's missions

The rocket has already signed numerous contracts for its future missions, notably with American defense agencies and telecommunications operators. It is also due to launch several payloads to the Moon as part of the Artemis programme, as well as numerous Kuiper satellites, Amazon's constellation of over 3,000 devices to provide high-speed Internet to remote areas (like SpaceX).

It is also due to launch NASA's EscaPADE probe into Martian orbit. The latter “ will analyze how Mars' magnetic field guides particle flows around the planet, how energy and momentum are transported from the solar wind through the magnetosphere, and what processes control the flow of energy and matter in and out of the Martian atmosphere “.

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