Blue Origin has successfully launched its huge rocket with a pair of NASA spacecraft destined for Mars.
The 98-metre New Glenn blasted into the afternoon sky from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending twin Mars orbiters on a journey to the red planet.
Liftoff was stalled for four days by bad local weather as well as solar storms. (AP: John Raoux)
The launch followed several days of delays due to cloudy skies and a geomagnetic storm.
The space venture of billionaire Jeff Bezos achieved a key engineering objective when its reusable first-stage booster separated from the rocket’s upper stage minutes after launch and flew back to Earth.
The twin satellites, dubbed Blue and Gold, are due to reach Mars in 2027. (AP: John Raoux)
Cheers erupted in mission control when it touched down safely on a barge in the Atlantic.
An ecstatic Bezos watched the action from Launch Control.
About 20 minutes later, it was confirmed that New Glenn’s upper stage had achieved its primary mission: deployment of NASA’s twin Escapade spacecraft into outer space to embark on a 22-month voyage to Mars.
Blue and Gold head to Red planet
The dual spacecraft, dubbed Blue and Gold, are due to reach Mars in 2027 and enter synchronised elliptical orbits for an 11-month study of the planet’s space weather environment.
Instruments aboard the satellites will analyse how solar winds — the fluctuating stream of high-energy charged particles from the sun — interact with the relatively weak Martian magnetic field and how that interaction may contribute to depletion of the thin Martian atmosphere.
Blue Origin, founded by Bezos in 2000, has — until recently — been known mainly for a space tourism business that flies wealthy passengers to the edge of space.
The sub-orbital New Shepard rocket ship is a single-stage reusable vehicle that also has carried more than 200 research experiments inside its capsule.
With Thursday’s launch, Escapade became the first science payload that Blue Origin has delivered into space for NASA or any customer.
This is a key milestone for the Bezos-owned company in its quest to compete on a more equal footing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the world’s leading rocket launch service.
AP/Reuters
