Just past 2 a.m. Eastern time on Jan. 16, 2025, a new rocket blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. By reaching orbit, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch has marked a milestone for a commercial space company that has big ambitions.
As a space policy expert, I see New Glenn’s success as a big leap forward for Blue Origin and a good sign for an expanding, ambitious commercial space industry.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn lifted off for its first flight on Jan. 16.
Step by step
Although SpaceX may be the most well-known commercial space company, Blue Origin is older by two years. Founded in 2000 by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the company envisions a time when millions of people are living and working in space.
To advance that vision, the company is developing its own line of reusable rockets, which could improve access to space.
Blue Origin’s motto is gradatim ferociter, Latin for “step by step, ferociously.” Bezos has explained that this reflects the company’s approach to spaceflight.
“If you’re building a flying vehicle, you can’t cut any corners. If you do, it’s going to be an illusion that it’s going to make it faster,” Bezos said at the Pathfinder Awards in 2016.
With this step-by-step approach, it took 15 years for Blue Origin to launch its first rocket. New Shepard, which launched in 2015, is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space.
New Shepard is not powerful enough to reach orbit. Instead, it flies a suborbital trajectory. That means it flies to the edge of space, experiencing low gravity for just a few minutes, before returning to its launch site.
What makes New Shepard unique is that it can carry passengers. It did so for the first time on July 20, 2021, when it carried three people, including Bezos, to space. Since then, there have been eight crewed flights of New Shepard and 21 uncrewed flights. Notably, it carried Star Trek’s William Shatner to space on Oct. 13, 2021.
New Shepard, New Glenn’s predecessor, is Blue Origin’s rocket for suborbital flights.
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File
New Shepard has not been without its issues, however. In 2022, it experienced an engine failure a minute after liftoff. With no humans on board, the launch escape system activated, allowing the capsule to safely return to Earth. This landing also meant that had people been on board, they too would have returned safely.
Expanding the envelope
While Blue Origin has learned a lot from New Shepard’s flights, the company needs a more powerful rocket. Named after John Glenn, the first American to reach orbit, New Glenn is designed to be that rocket.
Blue Origin started developing New Glenn in 2013 but only announced it publicly in 2016. It is made up of two sections called stages. The first stage has seven engines. Once this stage has used up all its fuel, the…