Blue Origin, the space company of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, succeeded on Thursday, November 13, in recovering the propellant from its powerful New Glenn rocket after its launch. This is a major step forward for the American company, which aims to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
After the rocket took 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 thunderous applause and shouts of joy from its employees. The maneuver, extremely complex for a rocket of this size, was only attempted for the second time by the company, and had until now only been successful by its great rival SpaceX.
“This is a historic day for Blue Origin”said the company’s vice-president, Ariane Cornell, during a video broadcast. “Never before in history has such a powerful thruster successfully landed on the second try”then praised Dave Limp, general manager of Blue Origin, in a press release. “Damn, that was great!” »was quick to greet Jared Isaacman on
“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 extremely difficult. Well done ! »ensuring that the Americans could be “proud”.
SpaceX in turmoil
With this success, Jeff Bezos, who wants to catch up with Elon Musk, should succeed in accelerating the pace of his launches and reducing their costs.
The two multi-billionaires each founded their space companies in the early 2000s, but Blue Origin has grown at a much slower pace than SpaceX, which now dominates the sector, in part because of a more cautious technical approach.
With this second successful orbital flight, Jeff Bezos intends to show that he is a serious competitor, particularly in a context of increased competition around NASA’s Artemis lunar program. If Jeff Bezos’ company had already been taking tourists for a few minutes into space with its New Shepard rocket for several years, it had not conducted any orbital flight until the inaugural launch of New Glenn in January.
The American space agency, which plans to send Americans back to the Moon in the coming years, raised in October the possibility of doing without the sector’s flagship company, SpaceX, due to development delays. This news provoked the ire of the Tesla boss and could give an advantage to Jeff Bezos, who is also developing a lander for NASA, now planned for a later mission.
Reinforced lunar and Martian ambitions
In this context, the performance of the New Glenn rocket, which on Thursday carried a NASA scientific mission called “Escapade” and intended to study Mars, was particularly scrutinized.
Thursday’s launch, a brilliant success, “will significantly strengthen confidence in Blue Origin and give the company the credibility and confidence to move forward on the Artemis program, go to the Moon and Mars, and carry out other projects in low orbit”told Agence France-Presse George Nield, president of a company promoting private space activities.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the US administration has put considerable pressure on NASA to accelerate its lunar program, which has suffered numerous complications and delays in recent years.
Sean Duffy, acting administrator of NASA, even went so far as to mention a “second space race” opposing Washington and Beijing, which also aims to set foot on lunar soil by 2030, after that which the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in during the Cold War.
Through the Artemis program, the Americans seek to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon and prepare the ground for future missions to Mars. The probes launched Thursday on behalf of NASA should play a role in this project, by deepening knowledge of the red planet.
Named Blue and Gold, the latter will be positioned in an orbit “secure parking” in order to stay close to Earth and wait for the ideal moment to leave for Mars, which they should reach in 2027, explained Joseph Westlake, a NASA official, on Thursday.
