Blue Origin
SpaceX Founder congratulates Jeff Bezos on successful New Glenn launch
SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk has congratulated Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin’s founder on successfully launching the New Glenn large-size rocket and sending it to orbit in the first attempt.
New Glenn is a 320-foot-tall rocket with two stages and a seven-meter payload fairing. The first stage is designed for maximum reusability aiming at up to 25 flights per booster.
To achieve reusability, the company has designed a vertical landing droneship, which will be used to land the first stage after hot staging. During this mission, the company performed all of the post-hot-staging milestones but lost the booster in the landing phase. Currently, the cause for booster loss has not been shared.
Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt! @JeffBezos https://t.co/EJl6L8aevV
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025
The first stage takes off the entire vehicle with seven BE-4 engines. These consumers liquefied natural gas to generate 3.8 million lbf thrust during liftoff.
On the other hand, the second stage is designed to continue the flight into orbit with two BE-3U engines generating over 320,000 lbf of vacuum thrust.
The primary objective of this mission was to cut the second stage and reach orbit, which was achieved in this first flight. The launch teams and engineers will explore the flight data and make new upgrades to New Glenn for future missions.