Space travel Jeff Bezos' new rocket fails to land
The first test flight of the new, powerful rocket "New Glenn" from the space company Blue Origin did not end as hoped. Although the rocket reached Earth orbit as planned, it failed to land on a platform in the Atlantic.
16.01.2025, 10:35
SDA
"We will attempt the landing again in the spring," wrote Blue Origin Managing Director Dave Limp on Platform X.
The "New Glenn" heavy-lift rocket is a two-stage rocket. These stages are mounted on top of each other and are ignited one after the other. According to the plan, the first, i.e. lower stage of "New Glenn" should be able to land upright and be reused at some point after its deployment.
This intended landing of the part, also known as the booster, on a platform in the Atlantic did not happen during the test on Thursday night (local time). "We lost the booster during the descent," announced billionaire Jeff Bezos' space company. Landing on the very first test flight was a "very ambitious goal", CEO Limp was quoted as saying.
The second, upper stage flew as planned. Blue Origin explained that the cargo had also reached the target orbit and was receiving data. This is a prototype of the "Blue Ring" spacecraft. This will later launch satellites into space.
A lot also went wrong at SpaceX
The first test launches of rockets are extremely complicated. When rival SpaceX's "Starship" took off for the first time almost two years ago, the system broke apart just a few minutes after take-off. The second launch also ended in an explosion.
Blue Origin has been working on the development of the partially reusable rocket for more than a decade, and the launch has also been postponed several times. Earlier this week, it was even aborted shortly beforehand because ice had formed on an engine.
