Battle for space: successful launch of Bezos' power rocket!

By Christina Horsten, Annett Stein and Wolfgang Jung

Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA) - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' (61) space company Blue Origin has tested its new, powerful rocket "New Glenn" for the first time.

The approximately 100-metre-high rocket, named after the US astronaut John Glenn (1921-2016), lifted off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida, as live footage from the company showed.

No precise details were initially available about the planned landing of the launch vehicle on a platform in the Atlantic during the test flight. There were discussions in forums about a possible failure during this part of the test flight.

"This is our first flight and we have prepared thoroughly for it," Blue Origin announced shortly before the launch on Platform X. "But no amount of ground tests or mission simulations can replace a flight with this rocket."

The most important goal of the test launch was to reach orbit safely. "Anything beyond that is the icing on the cake."

On board the two-stage heavy-lift rocket was a prototype of the "Blue Ring" spacecraft, which will later carry satellites into space. Among other things, the flight was intended to test the communication capabilities of "Blue Ring" by engineers on Earth.

According to Blue Origin, it has been working for more than a decade on the development of the partially reusable rocket, which can transport around 45 tons of material into low Earth orbit. Astronauts are also to use it to complete missions in the future.

According to the company, the first stage of "New Glenn" is designed for at least 25 flights. This will lead to significantly less waste and costs.

SpaceX also relies on reusable rocket parts. In other rockets, such as the European Ariane 6 launcher, the engines simply fall into the sea.

In the future, Blue Origin wants to compete with SpaceX, which currently dominates commercial space travel. The space company owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk (53) has been flying for the US space agency NASA and other clients for years, particularly with its Falcon Heavy rocket. The "Falcon Heavy" can transport around 64 tons of material.

SpaceX is also currently developing the largest rocket system ever built in the history of space travel, the "Starship". Its seventh test flight could start later this week. Blue Origin has so far mainly offered short space trips for space tourists with the "New Shepard" rocket. Bezos himself was also on board for its first flight in 2021.