Blue Origin is still there and is ready to fight SpaceX. This is the first thought after watching the successful launch of New Glenn, the new rocket created by Jeff Bezos’ company. He, the daddy of Amazon, who already, as a teenager, aspired to reach space, has become the alternative to Elon Musk, who, with SpaceX, is for everyone the aerospace company of reference.
Beyond opinions, it matters that after several postponements and cancellations, Blue Origin’s rocket took off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, marking the debut of its new launcher. Executed to perfection, the launch ended with the upper stage payload reaching its predetermined orbit. The first stage failed to live up to expectations, as instead of landing on a barge on the ground, it disintegrated in the Atlantic Ocean.
The same script characterised the seventh launch of SpaceX’s Starship rocket a few days later, with the first stage being successfully recovered and the second stage exploding instead. Forcing the aerospace company to make a lapidary comment: ‘Starship underwent an unplanned rapid disassembly’.
Learning from mistakes for improvement
Let’s clear the air: beyond what went wrong, Blue Origin’s launch has many positive implications for the development of the aerospace industry. ‘We knew that trying to land our booster on our first attempt was an ambitious goal. We will learn a lot from what we did today and try again with our next launch this spring,’ said Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin. In the same vein was SpaceX’s comment after the last launch: ‘The team will review the flight test data to better understand what happened, because success depends on what we learn.
After all, Blue Origin has achieved its mission objective: to reach orbit in order to obtain certification from the U.S. Space Force for the National Security Space Launch programme, for which Blue Origin has already obtained several contracts. The main game between SpaceX and Blue Origin is precisely the contracts to be obtained with NASA and the Pentagon.
For now, Musk’s company is ahead of its rival, but Blue Origin’s comeback is good news for (almost) everyone because it allows them to reduce costs and diversify the market. Hopefully, later on, Rocket Lab, United Launch Alliance or other companies will also emerge as a third wheel and play a leading role. ‘In recent years there has been only one player in the market, so having a competitor is a step forward,’ Scott Hubbard, a former top NASA official, told AFP.
A profitable market that needs competition
Despite having 28 launches to its credit on orbital missions with the small New Shepard rockets, nine of which carried passengers on board, Blue Origin had until now never sent a payload into orbit, the Blue Ring Pathfinder, which is designed to carry satellites to different orbits during a single mission.
Developed over a decade ago, New Glenn is a 98-metre-high rocket that pays homage to US astronaut John Glenn and is capable of carrying up to 45 tonnes of cargo in low orbit, as well as 13 tonnes in geostationary orbit and 7 tonnes in lunar transfer orbit. Moreover, it is on Earth’s satellite that New Glenn will focus some of its next missions, as it will carry the Blue Moon Mark 1 and Mark 2 landers (a crew is also planned on the latter).
If space can one day be our next home, it is clear that we need to push on the accelerator to further the evolution of the aerospace industry. With SpaceX leading the way and Blue Origin just behind, the hope is that other companies will have the strength and money to develop new solutions to aim for a slice of the most lucrative market in the near future.
