Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has completed its second flight, The Washington Post reports. The rocket launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday, and successfully separated from its first-stage booster, which later landed on a sea platform Blue Origin calls “Jacklyn.”
The launch marks the first time the space startup has been able to catch a New Glenn booster for later reuse. The maiden flight of the rocket in January was successful in the sense that it got New Glenn into space, but Blue Origin wasn’t able to save the booster from a watery grave. The company hoped to launch its second New Glenn mission on November 9, but cancelled it last minute due to weather.
New Glenn’s second mission is also notable because of its payload: The rocket ferried NASA satellites to space that are destined for Mars as part of the agency’s ESCAPADE mission. Considering SpaceX’s close relationship with NASA, Blue Origin working with the agency could be an important vote of confidence.
It could also mean New Glenn is in a good position to help another company founded by Jeff Bezos accelerate its satellite plans. The Post writes that Blue Origin has an existing agreement with Amazon to launch its recently rebranded Amazon Leo satellites into space. Leo is positioned as a competitor to Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service.
While SpaceX has completed many more launches with its Starship rocket than Blue Origin has, it’s also had more than a few explosive failures along the way. Blue Origin still needs more missions under its belt, but if it can repeat its success with New Glenn, it could prove to be a threat to SpaceX.
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