SpaceX has a tough competitor: here is Blue Origin and its New Glenn rocket

© Blue Origin

The space world is dominated by SpaceX. Elon Musk's company has a head start on the competition and with a billionaire at its head, it can develop new machines without thinking about the economic consequences.

The only company capable of competing with this speed of operation is undoubtedly Blue Origin. With Jeff Bezos, the founder and boss of Amazon at its head, it also has several tens of billions of dollars to achieve its objectives.

But these unlimited finances are not everything, it is also necessary to send rockets into space. This is now done. New Glenn, the company's heavy launcher, has just left Earth on January 16. A feat for Blue Origin, which has been working on this inaugural flight for years.

A first and already a great challenge

This first flight demonstrates that Blue Origin can also launch rockets into orbit. The company already has several commercial contracts to place satellites in orbit, notably on behalf of NASA, the Ministry of Defense and Amazon, with its Kuiper project (a direct competitor to Starlink).

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According to George Nield, a specialist in the space world, the arrival of a new player in this market is excellent news. The arrival of this competitor should make it possible to lower the costs of access to space, and to offer a “plan B&#8221 in case of a problem with one of the two devices.

New Glenn, a new generation rocket

To overshadow SpaceX, the New Glenn rocket was designed by the Blue Origin teams. 98 meters high (compared to 123 meters for the Starship), it should allow Jeff Bezos to make his space activities profitable, with commercial flights to orbit.

During this first passage in space, the rocket should test Blue Ring, a prototype for moving satellites once they have been released into orbit. The goal is to reduce space pollution and the number of debris. Blue Origin also promises more precise positioning, corresponding to the expectations of the brand's customers.

On Earth, the company must take advantage of this first flight to recover the first stage of its rocket from a barge at sea. SpaceX has already managed to perform this maneuver with its Falcon 9 rocket, but there is a good chance that Blue Origin will not reach its target on its first attempt.

The company's CEO, David Limp, has already announced that this is an “ambitious” maneuver, to be seen as a “bonus” and which will allow, whatever the outcome, to learn a lot of things about how the rocket works.

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