Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket, built by billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space company, lifted off from Florida on Thursday for its first commercial mission, sending two NASA satellites toward Mars and successfully landing its reusable booster for the first time.
The powerful two-stage launcher, making its first flight since debuting in January, marked two major milestones for Blue Origin—its first paid mission and its first booster recovery—as it intensifies competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the industry leader in reusable rockets.
A live webcast showed New Glenn rising through clear skies after its seven BE-4 engines ignited, following several days of delays caused by cloudy weather and a geomagnetic storm.
Roughly 10 minutes after liftoff, the 17-story booster touched down on the deck of the barge “Jacklyn” in the Atlantic, a recovery attempt that failed during January’s maiden launch. The achievement brings Blue Origin closer to mastering reusability, a capability long dominated by SpaceX.
Thursday’s mission also marked Blue Origin’s first time delivering a science payload to space: NASA’s twin EscaPADE spacecraft. “We achieved full mission success today, and I am so proud of the team,” CEO Dave Limp said. Musk congratulated the company on X, saying, “Congratulations @JeffBezos and the @BlueOrigin team!”
Mission control in Cape Canaveral erupted in cheers as video showed the booster—nicknamed “Never Tell Me the Odds,” a nod to Star Wars—landing on the barge. About 20 minutes later, New Glenn’s upper stage deployed the EscaPADE probes, which will travel for 22 months before arriving at Mars.
BLUE AND GOLD
The two spacecraft, named Blue and Gold, are expected to reach Mars in 2027. They will enter synchronized elliptical orbits to study the planet’s space-weather environment for 11 months. Their instruments will examine how solar wind interacts with Mars’ weak magnetic field and how this process helped strip away the planet’s once-thicker atmosphere—insights crucial to understanding its transition from a wetter world to the arid planet seen today.
Originally slated for launch in October 2024, EscaPADE was delayed due to setbacks in New Glenn’s development. The satellites were built by Rocket Lab with instruments from the University of California, Berkeley.
The rocket also carried a secondary Viasat payload, which remained attached to the upper stage to test an in-space telemetry relay system—a demonstration Blue Origin said succeeded.
New Glenn’s maiden flight in January carried only an internal payload: a prototype of Blue Origin’s maneuverable Blue Ring spacecraft, designed for government and commercial missions.
Founded by Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin has until recently been best known for its New Shepard suborbital tourism rocket, which has also flown more than 200 research experiments.
CATCHING UP TO SPACEX
Blue Origin has invested billions in New Glenn, a heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to become its flagship system for carrying people and cargo to orbit. Named after astronaut John Glenn, New Glenn produces twice the liftoff thrust of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and a similar level to Falcon Heavy, while offering more payload volume.
NASA is spending about $55 million on the EscaPADE mission and paid Blue Origin $18 million for Thursday’s launch, according to federal procurement data.
Blue Origin also builds engines for other rockets, including United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, and is developing a crewed lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program as well as a commercial space station with partner companies.
Still, the company trails SpaceX, which has flown nearly 280 Falcon rocket missions in the past two years, largely to support its Starlink satellite network. SpaceX is also testing its next-generation Starship system, a fully reusable stainless-steel rocket intended for missions to the moon, Mars, and for expanding Starlink.
