Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Triumph: A Stunning Response to the Naysayers

Early on Thursday, while many individuals across the United States were asleep, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace venture launched its inaugural rocket into orbit.

At 2:03 a.m. Eastern time, seven robust engines roared to life at the base of a 320-foot-high rocket known as New Glenn. The blaze turned the night into day at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket initially moved slowly, then began to ascend and pick up speed in an arc over the Atlantic Ocean, glowing in blue—the hue of its methane fuel’s combustion.

Thirteen minutes later, New Glenn’s second stage successfully reached orbit.

This launch marked a significant triumph for Blue Origin, the rocket enterprise of Mr. Bezos. It may silence detractors who argue that the company has been lagging behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has been the leading force in the global spaceflight sector in recent years. New Glenn has the potential to become a viable competitor to Mr. Musk’s enterprise and secure launch contracts from NASA, the Department of Defense, as well as private contracts.

For at least a brief moment, however, the two wealthiest individuals on the planet warmly congratulated one another.

“Congratulations on achieving orbit on the first attempt!” Mr. Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns.

“Thank you!” was Mr. Bezos’ response.

Mr. Bezos shared a collection of photos and videos. “Stunning,” Mr. Musk remarked on one of the pictures.

The ascent appeared nearly perfect, yet Blue Origin’s goal of landing the booster stage on a barge in the Atlantic was unsuccessful. The booster ignited three of its engines as intended to decelerate, but the data stream ceased, indicating a loss of the booster.

“We’ll gain substantial insights from today and will make another attempt at our next launch this spring,” Dave Limp, the chief executive of Blue Origin, stated.

For many years, Mr. Bezos has articulated an ambitious vision of millions of individuals living and working in space, dispatching spacecraft to the moon, and constructing space stations. However, skeptics have noted that Blue Origin had not dispatched anything into orbit since its inception nearly 25 years ago, two years before SpaceX.

Now, it has.

“Prior to this launch, skepticism about Blue Origin’s technical capability was justified,” remarked Todd Harrison, a space policy analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington. “And now they have established that they do.”

Until now, Blue Origin had only launched its smaller New Shepard rocket, which carried space tourists and scientific experiments on suborbital journeys to the boundary of space, offering a few moments of weightlessness. In 2021, Mr. Bezos was among the initial passengers on a New Shepard flight.

New Glenn, named in honor of John Glenn, the NASA astronaut who was the first American to orbit Earth, greatly outmatches New Shepard. In fact, a New Shepard could fit within New Glenn’s payload section in the nose cone. Achieving the velocity necessary to orbit the Earth presents a considerably more intricate challenge than what the New Shepard vehicle has accomplished.

“Suddenly, you’ve advanced to a new tier of credibility,” noted Phil Smith, an analyst in the space industry from BryceTech, a consulting firm located in Alexandria, Va.

When Mr. Bezos unveiled the rocket plans, he predicted its readiness by the end of 2020. A large Blue Origin rocket manufacturing facility was established just outside NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, yet there were few indications of the rocket itself. The original deadline came and went.

Blue Origin was chosen to launch a NASA mission—ESCAPADE, designed to take measurements of the Martian atmosphere—in October of the prior year. However, NASA withdrew the spacecraft from the inaugural flight when doubts arose about Blue Origin’s readiness.

Instead, this mission launched a prototype of Blue Ring, a vehicle intended to maneuver satellites within Earth’s orbit. For this particular flight, the prototype—referred to by Blue Origin as a “pathfinder”—remained attached to the rocket’s second stage, testing communication, power, and flight computer systems.

Blue Origin asserts that in the future, Blue Ring will be capable of transporting payloads between significantly different orbits, reaching as far as the moon, and executing various tasks.

According to Blue Origin, the Blue Ring prototype performed as expected during the six-hour mission.

Nonetheless, Blue Origin still trails SpaceX significantly in terms of achievements—Mr. Musk’s enterprise completed over 100 launches last year. However, New Glenn could introduce long-awaited competition to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, which currently dominate the launch market.

”The only outstanding question, in my opinion, is how quickly they can increase their launch frequency,” remarked Mr. Harrison.

In a conversation on Sunday, Mr. Limp indicated that following New Glenn’s successful inaugural launch, Blue Origin is targeting a second launch for the spring and aims for six to eight missions this year.

“That would represent a solid year for us, I believe,” he stated.

“Jeff is keen for us to escalate our efforts, so we’re pushing,” Mr. Limp added, referring to Mr. Bezos, who was seated beside him.

“That’s quite achievable,” remarked Mr. Bezos.

One of Blue Origin’s agreements is with Mr. Bezos’ other business, Amazon, to launch satellites for Project Kuiper, a network of internet satellites. This system will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.

Blue Origin representatives have yet to disclose what will be launched this year, although the missions could include an uncrewed lunar lander. Blue Origin is in the process of developing a spacecraft designed to transport NASA astronauts to the lunar surface in a few years.

During an interview last year on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” a Blue Origin official disclosed that the company was developing a compact lunar lander named Blue Moon Mark 1, targeted for a moon launch in 2025.

Mr. Limp confirmed that this plan remains in place and that the spacecraft is currently under construction.

A full-scale model of the Mark 1 lander occupies a prominent position in the lobby of the Blue Origin facility in Florida.

“It’s slated for this year,” stated Mr. Bezos. “I believe it will occur this year.”