CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin successfully launched its massive New Glenn rocket Thursday, carrying a pair of NASA spacecraft bound for Mars. The flight, only the second for the rocket, marks a major milestone for the company and NASA, which plan to use New Glenn for future missions to the Moon.
The 321-foot (98-meter) rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending the twin Mars orbiters on a long journey to the red planet. Liftoff was delayed four days due to poor weather and strong solar storms, which created auroras as far south as Florida.
In a notable first, Blue Origin successfully recovered the booster after separation from the upper stage and orbiters. The booster landed upright on a barge 375 miles (600 kilometers) offshore, prompting cheers from employees and a jubilant Jeff Bezos watching from Launch Control.
“Next stop, moon!” employees chanted as the booster completed its bull’s-eye landing. About 20 minutes later, the rocket’s upper stage deployed the two Mars orbiters, the main objective of the mission. NASA officials and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent congratulations, noting the achievement’s similarity to routine SpaceX booster recoveries.
The identical orbiters, named Escapade, will spend a year near Earth at a distance of 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) before using Earth’s gravity to assist their transit to Mars, arriving in 2027. Once in orbit, the spacecraft will map Mars’ upper atmosphere and magnetic fields to study interactions with the solar wind, helping scientists understand how the planet’s atmosphere escaped and how to better protect astronauts from radiation.
“We really, really want to understand the interaction of the solar wind with Mars better than we do now,” said Escapade lead scientist Rob Lillis of the University of California, Berkeley. “Escapade is going to bring an unprecedented stereo viewpoint because we’re going to have two spacecraft at the same time.”
The mission cost under $80 million and is managed by UC Berkeley, with NASA saving funds by booking one of New Glenn’s early flights. The launch was initially planned for last fall, but NASA delayed it due to potential setbacks with the new rocket.
Named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, New Glenn is five times larger than Blue Origin’s New Shepard rockets, which carry paying customers to the edge of space. In the coming months, Blue Origin plans to launch a prototype Blue Moon lunar lander on a demonstration mission aboard New Glenn.
Founded in 2000 by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin holds a NASA contract for the third Moon landing under the Artemis program. SpaceX, using its taller Starship rockets, secured the first two crewed lunar landings. NASA recently reopened the first crewed Moon landing contract, citing concerns over Starship’s test progress.
NASA aims to send astronauts around the Moon early next year with its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, followed by a crewed lunar landing by the end of the decade to maintain its lead over China.
Twelve astronauts last walked on the Moon over fifty years ago during the Apollo program.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
- EDGARDO HERNAL
- EDGARDO HERNAL
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