This Thursday has been a historic day for Jeff Bezos and his aerospace company, Blue Origin.
The geomagnetic storm affecting Earth this week due to intense solar activity prevented the second launch of his superrocket New Glenn, chosen by NASA to orbit its robotic Martian mission ESCAPADE. They had also attempted it last Sunday, but had to postpone it due to adverse weather. Finally, this Thursday, the impressive rocket, nearly 100 meters tall and seven meters in diameter, successfully took off with two twin satellites that will study the Martian atmosphere. Additionally, Bezos successfully recovered the first stage of his rocket, emulating what his great rival, Elon Musk, has been doing for years with SpaceX rockets.
The launch window from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida opened at 20:57 (Spanish peninsular time), and it seemed like the liftoff would take place at that time, but with 20 seconds remaining, the countdown stopped. The clock resumed and paused several times until finally, at 21:55, the engines roared, and the impressive New Glenn began its anticipated second flight.
As planned, nine minutes and nine seconds after liftoff, the first stage of the rocket returned to Earth to attempt the challenging maneuver of landing in a controlled manner on a ship at sea. During the inaugural launch of the New Glenn on January 16, the vehicle carried the Blue Origin's Blue Ring space platform on board, and although the launch was successful, it did not achieve the secondary goal of recovering the first stage of the rocket for reuse. However, this Thursday, the component landed on the marine platform.
Shrouded in a cloud of reddish dust and fire from the engine ignition, the booster majestically landed on the ship platform amidst the cheers and applause of the workers and spectators who excitedly followed the launch.
SpaceX has been performing this complex maneuver for years to recover a part of its rockets, which was long thought to be nearly impossible to achieve. But Elon Musk succeeded, and it is a strategy that is helping to reduce the cost of space launches.
Tesla's founder has thus managed to turn his aerospace company SpaceX into the world's leading launch company: in 2024 alone, they conducted over 130 launches (mostly with the Falcon 9, two with the Falcon Heavy, and four test flights of their vehicle Starship, which is in development). All their vehicles are designed to be partially reusable.
NASA also aims to reduce the cost of space technology, and the Martian mission launched this Thursday with Bezos' rocket is a testament to that. ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) cost only 80 million dollars (about 69 million euros), and with it, the agency aims to assess the feasibility of sending low-cost planetary exploration spacecraft.
ESCAPADE consists of two twin satellites, named Blue and Gold that will study the interaction between the solar wind and Mars' magnetic field. It is expected that the two orbiters will reach the red planet in September 2027.
The New Glenn rocket also placed a Viasat technology demonstration into orbit for NASA's Communications Services Project.
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk actively compete in the space sector with their respective companies, and although Musk is ahead - he even has a crewed spacecraft that regularly takes NASA astronauts and private astronauts to space - Bezos, who until now had mainly conducted suborbital space tourism flights of a few minutes, is closing the gap with Musk.
Thursday's flight was a crucial test for the American magnate. In addition to demonstrating that his rocket is also reusable, his New Glenn faced its first NASA assignment, and Bezos wanted to show the agency that they can trust him and award him significant contracts. Symbolically, this Martian mission is also important in terms of the rivalry between the two billionaires, as it is well known that the Tesla founder is obsessed with reaching the red planet. Bezos has beaten him to it, although Elon Musk's goal is for his Starship vehicle to land on the red planet - his plan is to send his unmanned spacecraft in 2027, as Starship consists of a booster rocket and a spacecraft.
By the way, it had been five years since NASA launched a Martian mission - the last one was the Perseverance rover in July 2020.
The competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin is particularly intense in Artemis, the US program to send humans back to the Moon. In April 2021, NASA awarded Elon Musk's company a $2.9 billion contract to supply the first manned lunar landing module on which the astronauts of Artemis 3 mission will reach the lunar surface. Scheduled for mid-2027, it will be the most emblematic mission of the Artemis program, as no astronaut has set foot on the Moon since 1972.
The module from which the astronauts of Artemis 3 will descend will be a modified version of their Starship vehicle called Starship HLS (Human Landing System). However, due to delays in its development and China's plans to send astronauts by 2030, NASA intends to now open that contract to new companies. Acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy stated this last month.
Duffy explained that US President Donald Trump aims for Artemis 3 to launch during his current term, so he stated that the contract would be opened for other companies to apply to provide that module and expedite the mission. However, these statements were made before Donald Trump backtracked and renominated the entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead NASA, whose candidacy Trump unexpectedly withdrew when he got upset with Elon Musk in late May.
Jeff Bezos participated in the 2019 NASA competition to manufacture the lunar module for Artemis 3 (in partnership with veteran companies Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, and Astrobotic under the name National Team). When SpaceX won that historic contract, Bezos unsuccessfully took NASA to court. In 2023, the Amazon founder secured a $3.4 billion contract to develop his lunar landing module Blue Moon, originally expected to make its manned lunar debut on the Artemis 5 mission. However, he may now compete with SpaceX and potentially have his module used by NASA in Artemis 3 if he can accelerate its development.
The Artemis 3 mission has been delayed several times, initially planned for 2024, not only due to the development of the lunar module provided by SpaceX but also due to delays with the Orión spacecraft and the spacesuits for the crew.