Getty ImagesAmazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company has launched its first rocket to challenge the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The New Glenn rocket was launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time (07:02 GMT).
It pits two of the world’s richest men firmly against each other in a commercial space race, to fly bigger and more powerful rockets.
Both want to populate the skies with more satellites, operate private space stations, and provide transportation for regular trips to the moon.
Bezos’ team overcame technical hurdles that caused delays earlier this week when ice formations halted the launch.
Blue Origin employees and crowds gathered near Cape Canaveral as the 98-meter-tall rocket plunged into orbit.
But the company failed to land New Glenn’s main rocket engine, or booster, on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
It hoped the booster would be reusable for future launches but after about 20 minutes of flight, the company confirmed it had run out of engines.
Bezos’ company Blue Origin has struggled to match the pace set by SpaceX. But the launch will be seen as a big step for the business.
The New Glenn rocket was named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth more than 60 years ago.
The rocket is more powerful than SpaceX’s most used rocket, the Falcon 9. It can also carry more satellites, and Bezos wants to use it as part of his Project Quiper, which aims to deploy thousands of low-Earth satellites to deliver broadband. Services
That project will compete directly with Musk’s StarLink service.
Blue Origin MediaJeff Bezos founded Blue Origin 25 years ago, claiming to have “millions of people working and living in space.”
For several years the project has sent New Shepard, a small, reusable rocket, to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. It has picked up passengers and payloads, including Bezos himself, in 2021.
But SpaceX has dramatically outpaced Blue Origin, which launched its rockets 134 times last year.
And SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, called Starship, is more powerful still. The company hopes to launch it on its seventh test flight later today.
Some experts say a successful New Glenn rocket would create real competition between the two companies and could lower the costs of space operations.
“What you’re going to see is that these two companies challenge each other to grow even more,” suggests Dr Simon Barber at the UK’s Open University.
Governments have historically spent billions building rockets and sending missions into space.
But NASA, the US space agency, is increasingly moving away from relying solely on public money and has awarded huge contracts to private companies to provide rockets and other space services.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already received billions of dollars in space contracts.
His close relationship with the next US President, Donald Trump, could further strengthen his company.