(FILES) This file handout photo taken on April 24, 2015 obtained courtesy of Blue Origin shows Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, at New Shepard's West Texas launch facility before the rocket's maiden voyage. - Jeff Bezos sets his sights on a new frontier in space in the coming days after building a gargantuan business empire which has in many ways conquered the Earth. (Photo by BLUE ORIGIN / AFP)
WASHINGTON DC: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin is poised to launch its first orbital rocket this week, marking a pivotal moment in the commercial space race currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Named New Glenn, the rocket is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as soon as Jan 8 1am, with a backup window on Jan 10, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory.
While Blue Origin has not officially confirmed the launch date, excitement has been building since a successful “hotfire” test on Dec 27.
“Next stop launch,” Bezos declared on X, sharing a video of the towering rocket’s engines roaring to life.
The NG-1 mission will carry a prototype of Blue Ring, a Defence Department-funded spacecraft envisioned as a versatile satellite deployment platform, which will remain on board the rocket’s second stage for the duration of the six-hour test flight.
It will mark Blue Origin’s long-awaited entry into the lucrative orbital launch market after years of suborbital flights with its smaller New Shepard rocket, which carries passengers and payloads on brief trips to the edge of space.
“The market is really orbital,” analyst Astralytical founder Laura Forczyk told AFP. “Suborbital can only take you so far – there are only so many payloads and customers for a quick ride to space.”
The milestone will also escalate the rivalry between Bezos, the world’s second-richest person, and Musk, the wealthiest, who has cemented SpaceX’s dominance and is now in President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets have become industry workhorses, serving clients from commercial satellite operators to the Pentagon and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which relies on them to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
Like Falcon 9, New Glenn features a reusable first stage designed to land vertically on a ship at sea.
The vessel, playfully named So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance reflects the challenge of landing a reusable rocket on the first attempt, Blue Origin chief executive officer Dave Limp said on X.
At 320 ft (98m), New Glenn dwarfs the 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed to carry larger, heavier payloads.
It slots between Falcon 9 and its larger sibling, Falcon Heavy, in cargo capacity while burning cleaner liquid natural gas rather than kerosene and relying on fewer engines.
“If I were still a senior executive at Nasa, I’d be thrilled to finally have some competition to the Falcon 9,” G Scott Hubbard, Nasa’s former “Mars Czar” now at Stanford University, told AFP, adding that increased competition could help drive down launch costs.
For now, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, capturing the lion’s share of the market while rivals like United Launch Alliance, Arianespace and Rocket Lab trail far behind.
Like Musk, Bezos has an enduring passion for space. But where Musk dreams of colonising Mars, Bezos envisages populating the solar system with massive floating space colonies.
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 – two years before Musk started SpaceX – but the company has progressed at a far slower pace, reflecting a more cautious approach. –– AFP
