Jeff Bezos rocket is ready to make history

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is about to launch its New Glenn rocket for the first time. The maiden flight is planned for tomorrow, January 13th – and marks a milestone in the competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Giants of space travel in competition

The launch could rearrange the balance of power in commercial space travel, as space has long been the scene of a duel between two tech billionaires. Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is preparing for the first launch of its New Glenn rocket, while Elon Musk’s SpaceX is igniting the next stage of development with its Starship project.

The final countdown before launch will begin shortly and so far everything is looking good. According to the latest information from the Cape Canaveral spaceport, nothing stands in the way of the launch. The New Glenn, named after the first US astronaut John Glenn to orbit the Earth, is currently waiting for good conditions for launch. At 98 meters high, it is an example of modern rocket technology.

Launch is scheduled for Monday, January 13, 2025, at 1:00 a.m. local time (7:00 a.m. CET) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. On board is the Blue Ring Pathfinder, a test platform for future spacecraft funded by the US Department of Defense. Like the French daily newspaper Le Monde reports, Blue Origin plans to land the rocket’s first stage in the Gulf of Mexico – an ambitious plan for the first flight. The landing is scheduled to take place on the Jacklyn platform, named after Bezos’ mother. This reusability is a key element in Blue Origin’s strategy to reduce rocket launch costs and compete with SpaceX.

Our goal is to reach orbit. Anything beyond that is a bonus. Landing our booster at sea is ambitious – but we’re trying. No matter what happens, we will learn a lot. Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin

SpaceX: The competitor in view

For its part, SpaceX, which currently dominates the commercial space market, is planning the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket. However, with a height of 120 meters and a payload capacity of up to 150 tons in low-Earth orbit, the Starship significantly surpasses the New Glenn. A comparison of the payload capacities shows the positioning in the market:

New Glenn: Up to 45 tons into low Earth orbit
Falcon 9 (SpaceX): 23 tons
Falcon Heavy (SpaceX): 64 tons

This shows how tight the competition is in this segment.

A long history

The space race between Bezos and Musk has a long history. Blue Origin was founded in 2000, followed by SpaceX in 2002. Since then, both companies have advanced commercial space travel and pushed each other to achieve ever greater innovations.

The New Glenn rocket has seven BE-4 engines in the first stage that run on liquid methane and oxygen. These engines have already proven themselves on two flights of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Blue Origin hopes that this success will continue with the New Glenn.

Some current projects to develop reusable rockets:

SpaceX:
Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy: Both rockets have a reusable first stage. SpaceX plans to achieve complete reusability with Starship
Blue Origin:
New Shepard: Fully reusable suborbital tourist rocket
New Glenn: Developing a reusable first stage, first flight expected soon
RocketLab:
Neutron rocket: Development of a rocket with a reusable first stage, which has been in the works since 2021
China:
Long March 10: Planned reusable rocket to be used for lunar missions, with first flights in 2025 and 2026
Long March 9: Revised design with a fully reusable first stage, scheduled to fly in 2033.
LandSpace Zhuque-3: Successful test flight of a methane-powered rocket with landing
Russia:
Amur Project: Development of a reusable rocket, expected to produce a prototype in 2025. The rocket is powered by liquid methane and has a planned payload of 10.5 tons in the reusable variant
Europe:
SALTO project: EU initiative to develop technologies for reusable space transport systems, including upright landing of booster stages. Test flights are planned to demonstrate key technologies
Themis Project (ESA): Focus on developing a reusable rocket stage, with test flights starting in 2025