Blue Origin lands New Glenn booster after launch
Blue Origin successfully landed the booster of its New Glenn rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean after launching a small NASA Mars mission, marking a major breakthrough that brings the company closer to SpaceX’s long-held dominance in reusable rockets.
The lower stage of the two-stage New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral and, after sending its payload toward Mars, returned through Earth’s atmosphere before touching down on the recovery vessel. The landing represents Blue Origin’s first fully successful attempt at recovering a New Glenn booster, a feat SpaceX first accomplished in 2015 and has since repeated hundreds of times, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
New Glenn is designed to carry heavy payloads into orbit with a partially reusable architecture. Its size and lift capacity place it in direct competition with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and the upcoming Starship system.
For Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, the booster’s recovery is a critical step toward lowering launch costs and increasing flight frequency. The successful landing also strengthens the company’s position in upcoming NASA contracts and commercial launch bids.
The flight carried a small NASA mission headed to Mars as part of a program to test new technologies for planetary exploration. After separation, the booster executed a controlled descent and landed upright on the ocean platform — a moment captured in on-board video that the company released shortly after the event.
Blue Origin has been developing New Glenn for nearly a decade, facing repeated delays and cost increases. This successful landing signals that the rocket is finally progressing toward regular commercial service.
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