The first stage of the New Glenn rocket made by Blue Origin landed vertically on a ship at sea after sending two NASA ships into space.
The New Glenn rocket left the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, Florida, at 3:45 p.m. on November 13 (3:45 p.m. on November 14 Hanoi time), carrying two NASA Mars spacecraft and a technology testing device for satellite communications company Viasat. About three minutes later, the main engine shut down and the rocket began separation as planned.
After separation, the second rocket stage continued to carry the NASA ship duo into space, while the first stage performed multiple engine firings to reduce the falling speed, preparing to land on Blue Origin’s Jacklyn ship waiting in the Atlantic Ocean.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launched into space, the first stage returned to land at sea. Video: Blue Origin
New Glenn attempted to land on its first launch in January but failed. At that time, Blue Origin did not expect the rocket to land on target but just wanted to collect data to increase the likelihood of success for future flights. This data brought good results for today’s launch, when the rocket’s booster stage landed vertically on the Jacklyn ship.
“An orbital rocket has landed. This is a great day for Blue Origin, for the space industry,” commented Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin’s Vice President of Space Systems.
The new achievement makes Blue Origin the second company in history to recover a rocket during an actual flight. The first company to reach this milestone was SpaceX.
However, landing the booster stage is not the main goal of today’s launch, but rather bringing the pair of spacecraft in NASA’s Escapade mission to space. This goal was also successful when the two ships landed in the correct position about 33 minutes after launch.
Escapade is the first mission to send two privately built probes to Mars, studying the process of the planet losing its atmosphere and becoming the arid planet it is today. The pair of ships, built by Rocket Lab, have an estimated cost of less than 100 million USD – much lower than NASA’s previous key Mars missions, which usually cost about 300-600 million USD. The two ships are expected to enter Mars orbit in September 2027.
New Glenn is a two-stage reusable rocket 98 m high. With the ability to carry 50 tons into low Earth orbit (LEO), it is nearly as powerful as SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket and nearly twice as powerful as United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. According to design, the first stage of New Glenn is capable of carrying out at least 25 flights. Today’s success brings this rocket model closer to the goal of implementing large-value transportation contracts for the US Space Force and the US National Reconnaissance Office.