Blue Origin looks to take on SpaceX dominance with New Glenn launch days away

Nearly a quarter century after its founding, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is gearing up to launch an orbital rocket for the first time — and finally enter the competitive launch industry that is currently dominated by SpaceX. 

Company executives have maintained that they are planning to launch the towering rocket, called New Glenn, before the year is out. However, an air traffic advisory posted last week suggests that Blue Origin may conduct the launch no earlier than January 6. 

Regardless, there is little left for the company to do in terms of pre-launch tests or paperwork: Blue Origin received its launch license for New Glenn from federal regulators last week, which authorizes launches for five years. That same day, the company successfully conducted a launch dress rehearsal called a hot fire test. All that’s left on the checklist, Blue Origin CEO David Limp confirmed, is connecting the fairing, which carries the rocket’s payload.

When the rocket does finally launch, seven of the Blue Origin-made BE-4 engines will fire up to generate over 3.8 million pounds of thrust and propel the rocket away from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 320-foot-tall rocket will carry demonstrator technology for Blue Origin’s Blue Ring spacecraft, an orbital transfer vehicle that’s designed to provide transportation, logistics, and satellite servicing.

New Glenn and Blue Ring are just two of several products Blue Origin has been developing to compete in multiple areas of the space industry. The company is ultimately looking to go up against several competitors — not just up against SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which currently launches the lion’s share of national security and commercial satellite payloads — that are developing lunar landers, private space stations, and more.

Up until this point, Blue Origin has mostly been known for its New Shepard suborbital rocket, which carries space tourists and some cargo up to suborbital space and back in brief flights. 

If all goes to plan, New Glenn’s booster will return to Earth and land vertically on a floating barge, to be refurbished and reused up to 25 times. NASA also tapped Blue Origin to launch twin spacecraft to Mars — those satellites were supposed to fly on this inaugural mission, but after the launch was delayed from October, the space agency decided to remanifest them on a later New Glenn launch. Blue Origin also has signed launch deals with the Space Force, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and other commercial companies.