Tag: New Glenn

Blue Origin sticks first New Glenn rocket landing and launches NASA spacecraft

Posted on by faz_business


Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has 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.

The accomplishment is noteworthy for the broader space industry, and one that SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell acknowledged via a post on social media site X with a simple “Magnificent!” Musk even offered his own congratulations shortly after.

New Glenn’s first launch was in January, and Blue Origin experienced a number of delays in getting the second rocket to launch. The company had hoped to make a second attempt as early as the spring, but pushed it back multiple times. New Glenn finally made it to the launch pad on Sunday, but weather and solar storms delayed it further.

The rocket finally took off from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday at around 3:55 p.m. ET. At about four minutes into the flight, the second stage separated and headed further into space, while the New Glenn booster began its journey back toward Earth. Roughly 10 minutes into the flight, the 189-foot-tall booster touched down on the platform.

Techcrunch event

San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026

Blue Origin had attempted to bring the New Glenn booster back on the rocket’s first flight in January. But the booster exploded before it had a chance to land on the drone ship. Blue Origin worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to identify and make a number of fixes to the rocket, and the company was confident it could stick the landing on attempt number two.

The ability to land a booster like this is an important step in making the rocket system reusable, which lowers the cost for customers — a capability that SpaceX has mastered. Blue Origin will now have to demonstrate the ability to refurbish the rocket booster and launch it again.

These are crucial capabilities for commercial customers and government missions. Blue Origin has had its eyes on the moon for years, and is currently developing a lunar lander. So is SpaceX, with Starship. But the government has asked them to speed up these programs, and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy recently criticized SpaceX for moving too slowly.

Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp recently said in response his company “will move heaven and Earth” to help NASA get back to the moon faster. But it can’t do that without successfully proving out all of New Glenn’s capabilities.

Thursday’s launch went a long way toward accomplishing that overarching goal.

This rocket-launch photo is unlike any you’ve seen before

Posted on by faz_business


Blue Origin launched its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket for the first time last week, and news sites and social media feeds were quick to share dramatic images of the 98-meter-tall rocket heading toward the heavens.

At the same time, NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured the launch in a long exposure from the International Space Station (ISS) some 250 miles above Earth. The result is a rocket-launch photo unlike any you’ve seen before:

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket visible as a streak of light from bottom right to top left.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket visible as a faint streak of light from bottom right to top left. Don Pettit / NASA

Sharing the image in a post on X, Pettit, who arrived at the orbital outpost in September, explained that it was captured over a period of four minutes, which explains the star trails that dominate the picture. With Earth at the bottom, the New Glenn rocket is visible as a faint streak crossing the image from the bottom right to the upper left.

“This was not an easy photograph to take,” Pettit wrote, adding that the space station was over Oklahoma at the beginning of the exposure and over central Gulf of Mexico at the end.


Please enable Javascript to view this content

Pettit has earned a reputation for his impressive photography work during four missions to orbit over the last couple of decades. The experienced astronaut is particularly fond of shots filled with star trails, but this appears to be the first time that he’s been lucky enough to include a rocket launch in one.

Other notable images from Pettit’s current ISS mission include one showing a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft hurtling back to Earth, and another showing the bright glow of an aurora above Earth.

Always on the lookout for a stunning scene, he also captured this stunning image of waterways, which he described as “flowing silver snakes.”

Pettit recently took time out to talk about his photography work in an interview from the space station.






How Blue Origin’s Sunday night launch went from giant leap to awkward stumble

Posted on by faz_business


There were high hopes for the maiden launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on Sunday, but sadly, it wasn’t to be.

The late-night NG-1 mission was supposed to be a giant leap for Blue Origin rocket technology, but the 98-meter-tall vehicle failed to get off the ground as planned.

Blue Origin’s live stream kicked off at midnight ET, 60 minutes before the three-hour launch window opened for the New Glenn’s departure from Cape Canaveral in Florida.


Please enable Javascript to view this content

Welcoming viewers to the stream, presenters Ariane Cornell and Denisse Aranda spoke enthusiastically as they shared their excitement for the debut flight of Blue Origin’s first orbital rocket.

“This is happening,” Ariane said. Except that it wasn’t.

At around 12:30 a.m., with 27 minutes to go until the first launch opportunity, the stream dropped in on a bunch of kids and their parents waiting to watch the launch from a park close to Cape Canaveral. The children smiled and cheered, perhaps in anticipation of the imminent liftoff, though definitely because they were up way past their bedtimes. We also visited Blue Origin employees at multiple sites across the U.S., cheering excitedly ahead of launch. The one that didn’t quite happen.

Early on, things seemed to be going smoothly enough for the spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos. But then, just 17 minutes from liftoff, the countdown clock on the screen suddenly disappeared before quickly reappearing with an extra 20 minutes added. If you blinked, you would’ve missed it.

“They just need a couple more minutes … that is A-OK with all of us,” Cornell said in a reassuring voice that gave no indication of what was coming.

The delay gave the live stream more time to play all of the prepared video inserts explaining everything about the New Glenn rocket and its Blue Ring Pathfinder payload.

But disappointingly, 11 minutes later, the countdown clock jumped again, adding another 14 minutes to take it back to 33 minutes. Folks watching the stream at home may have started to wonder if the problem was with the clock itself, not with the rocket. At this rate, unless the engineers could work out why the darn clock kept adding minutes, we could be stuck here for weeks.

But then things began to look up as the clock ticked all the way down to 9 minutes before launch … before suddenly resetting to 29 minutes. There was mention of a checklist that the Blue Origin engineers had to get through.

Popular YouTuber Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut, who was running his own live stream commentating on the commentators, took a deep breath. “Oh no, another delay. You know, it’s not ideal for my sleep schedule, it’s really not,” he said.

Back at the park, the kids weren’t smiling anymore. Approaching 2 a.m. ET, it really was way past their bedtime now. Even some of the parents had a “it’s way past my bedtime, too” look on their faces. Heck, even Bezos was probably stifling a yawn or two. One little girl, who fortunately was still awake, was asked what she was most looking forward to about the launch. “Going home once this is all over,” she probably wanted to say, but staying on message like a true Blue Origin believer, she responded: “For the rocket to go up into space.” She didn’t know it then, but it was asking a lot.

Promisingly, the clock continued to tick down, all the way to 14 minutes. And then it reset to 35 minutes. This time around, Cornell, perhaps not wanting to believe it, didn’t even acknowledge the delay. Exhausted folks at home may have started to wonder if their mind was playing tricks on them.

Dodd emitted a chuckle of despair, but tried to stay clear-headed about the situation. “I expect this, I expect delays, I am not shocked by this,” he said in a tone of voice that made you wonder if he really believed what he was saying.

By 2:15 a.m., the official Blue Origin live stream appeared to have run out of video inserts, leaving viewers to stare at footage of a rocket still very much on terra firma.

The New Glenn on the launchpad.
The New Glenn rocket on the launchpad. Blue Origin

At 11 minutes until liftoff, the countdown clock jumped yet again, resetting to 38 minutes. “Noooo, noooo, nooooo!” Dodd said, noting that Blue Origin’s launch window was rapidly closing.

“They’re working through their checklist,” Cornell said again, leaving viewers to wonder if the oft-mentioned checklist, if laid out on a single piece of paper, might reach all the way to the moon.

The countdown clock made it to 12 minutes, and then, in its oddest switch yet, flipped to zero seconds. “It’s lifting off, it’s lifting off,” Dodd said, adding, “It’s not lifting off … that is not a good sign.”

The Blue Origin live stream camera stayed firmly fixed on the New Glenn rocket, which itself appeared to be firmly fixed to the ground. Cornell and Aranda stayed silent. Perhaps they’d fallen asleep. Folks watching the live stream continued to stare at the rocket. The silence was deafening. Had everyone gone home and forgotten to tell them?

At around 3 a.m., and possibly after having just enjoyed a brief power nap, Cornell returned to the stream to announce that the launch had been scrubbed. The reason? Not a faulty countdown clock, but a “vehicle subsystem issue.”

Dodd summed it up before heading to bed. “I kind of expected that, to be honest. Better to be safe than sorry.”

He’s right. It’s not unusual for maiden launches like this to face such issues. Blue Origin has to get it right, and it’s just bad luck for the folks who stayed up late in anticipation of enjoying what should eventually be a spectacular launch. There’ll be another chance soon, and hopefully the New Glenn will finally get to fire up its rocket engines and head skyward.

Fancy another launch attempt? SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is supposed to lift off on its seventh test flight on Wednesday. But do keep an eye on that countdown clock.