Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, successfully recovered propellant from the powerful New Glenn rocket on Thursday, November 13 after launch. This is a big step forward for the American company, which aims to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
After the rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the company successfully landed the first stage, or booster, in a controlled manner on a barge at sea, to loud applause and screams of joy from its employees. The maneuver, which is extremely complex for a rocket of this size, has only been attempted for the second time by the company, and until now has only been successfully carried out by its big rival, SpaceX.
“This is a historic day for Blue Origin”said the company’s vice president, Ariane Cornell, in a video broadcast. “Damn, that was great!” »quickly greeted Jared Isaacman
“Congratulations to Jeff Bezos and the Blue Origin team”reacted Elon Musk on the same platform. Jon Edwards, head of Falcon rocket launches at SpaceX, said: “Recovering an orbital rocket is very difficult. Very good ! »ensure that America can do it “proud”.
SpaceX is in chaos
With this success, Jeff Bezos, who wants to catch up with Elon Musk, should succeed in speeding up his launch rate and reducing his costs.
The two multi-billionaires each founded their space companies in the early 2000s, but Blue Origin grew much more slowly than SpaceX, which now dominates the sector, in part because of a more cautious technical approach.
With this successful second orbital flight, Jeff Bezos aims to show that he is a serious competitor, especially in the context of increasing competition around NASA’s Artemis lunar program.
The American space agency, which plans to send Americans back to the Moon in the next few years, in October raised the possibility of doing so without the sector’s flagship company, SpaceX, due to development delays.
This news angered the Tesla boss and could provide benefits for Jeff Bezos, who is also developing a lander for NASA, which is now planned for the next mission.
Strengthens lunar and Mars ambitions
In this context, the performance of the New Glenn rocket, which on Thursday carried NASA’s scientific mission called “Escapade” and intended to study Mars, received special attention.
If Jeff Bezos’ company “carrying out this mission, it will give confidence to NASA”estimate with Agence France-Presse George Nield, president of a company that promotes private space activities, ahead of the launch.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the US government has put enormous pressure on NASA to speed up its lunar program, which has experienced many complications and delays in recent years.
Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator, even went so far as to say a “second space race” opposed Washington and Beijing, who also aimed to set foot on the moon by 2030, after the United States and the Soviet Union became embroiled in the Cold War.
Through the Artemis program, America seeks to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon and prepare the groundwork for future missions to Mars. The spacecraft launched Thursday on behalf of NASA should play a role in this project, by deepening knowledge about the red planet.
Named Blue and Gold, the latter will be placed in orbit “safe parking” to stay close to Earth and wait for the ideal moment to go to Mars, which is expected to be achieved in 2027, explained Joseph Westlake, a NASA official, on Thursday.
