Blue Origin Launches New Glenn Rocket to Orbit for the First Time, Marking a Milestone for Jeff Bezos

Blue Origin Launches New Glenn Rocket to Orbit for the First Time, Marking a Milestone for Jeff Bezos Main Photo

15 Jan 2025


Success Stories

GEEKWIRE – For the first time ever, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has put a payload in orbit, using its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket.

The two-stage rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:03 a.m. ET Thursday (11:03 p.m. PT tonight). Cheers could be heard coming from Blue Origin employees watching the launch. …

The prime objective of the mission, known as NG-1, was to test the communications and control systems for Blue Ring, a multi-mission space mobility platform that’s under development at Blue Origin.

For Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin, and for Bezos, the mere fact that New Glenn made it to orbit was at least as significant as the Blue Ring Pathfinder test. Although the company has launched smaller New Shepard rockets on suborbital spaceflights for a decade, it had never before put a payload into Earth orbit.

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