Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket lifts off on first flight

On Thursday (January 16) morning, at a time when most people in the United States were sleeping, Jeff Bezos’ space company sent its first rocket into orbit.

At 2:03 a.m. Eastern time, seven powerful engines ignited at the base of a 320-foot-tall rocket named New Glenn. The flames illuminated night into day at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket, barely moving at first, nudged upward and then accelerated in an arc over the Atlantic Ocean.

Thirteen minutes later, the second stage of New Glenn reached orbit.

The launch was a major success for Blue Origin, Bezos’ rocket company, and it should quiet some critics who say the company has been too slow compared with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

While Bezos talked of an ambitious vision of millions of people working and living in space, skeptics had long pointed out that Blue Origin had not sent a single thing to orbit since the company was founded nearly a quarter century ago.

Now it has.

The flames from Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket during the lift-off illuminated night into day at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Blue Origin still lags far behind SpaceX in accomplishments — Musk’s company launched more than 100 times last year. But New Glenn looks to be a vehicle that can offer long-awaited competition for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, which currently dominate the launch industry.

Here’s what you need to know about Thursday’s launch:

The rocket

New Glenn is a bit taller than the Statue of Liberty. It can lift 45 metric tons to low-Earth orbit and possesses a greater payload volume than other rockets currently in operation. It carried a prototype of Blue Ring, a vehicle Blue Origin is developing to move payloads to different orbits after they go to space.

Why the launch window was in the very early morning:

The Federal Aviation Administration dictated that it happen then. “That launch window, it interferes less with aviation,” Bezos said in an interview.

Blue Origin’s stretch goal did not succeed:

New Glenn’s booster stage, intended to be reusable, failed in its attempt to land on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean. Blue Origin knew this was an ambitious and difficult feat to pull off during a rocket’s debut flight, and had named the booster “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance.” It turned out there was not a chance.