Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin just scored a major milestone in the space race! 🌍 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted the company a five-year license to launch its New Glenn rocket—a reusable heavy-lift vehicle designed to compete with SpaceX and others for national security missions.
The license allows orbital launches from Florida’s Cape Canaveral, with the rocket’s first stage landing on a barge in the Atlantic. New Glenn’s debut will be a certification mission for the U.S. Space Force, paving the way for Pentagon satellite launches. Originally slated to carry NASA’s Mars spacecraft, delays pushed that plan aside. Now, Blue Origin will test its Blue Ring program tech, aimed at delivering maneuverable spacecraft for defense needs.
This puts Blue Origin in direct competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose reusable Falcon 9 dominates the market, and Boeing-Lockheed’s United Launch Alliance. The Pentagon’s $5.6 billion program selected these three to handle critical space missions starting this year. While SpaceX recently aced a Starship booster landing, Blue Origin has faced challenges getting New Glenn off the ground—hiring Amazon veteran Dave Limp in 2023 to speed things up.
🔭 Why it matters: The space industry is booming, and reusable rockets are the golden ticket. Will New Glenn’s debut help Blue Origin catch up? Stay tuned! 🚀
