Bezos’s Blue Origin schedules, then delays first orbital launch | Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has announced it will launch its first orbital rocket “by Friday,” a pivotal moment in the commercial space race currently dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX. The Amazon founder's rocket company then postponed the launch until at least Sunday, January 12, due to rough seas.

The rocket, named New Glenn, will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. “Due to high seas conditions in the Atlantic Ocean where we would like to land the booster, we are rescheduling the launch date for NG-1 to after January 12,” the company's statement said.

The NG-1 mission carried a prototype of the Blue Ring, a U.S. Department of Defense-funded spacecraft conceived as a versatile satellite deployment platform, which was mounted on the rocket's second stage during a six-hour test flight. It will remain installed.

On January 6, Blue Origin's CEO tweeted a photo of the rocket's assembly process along with the initial launch announcement, writing, “Blue Ring Pathfinder integrated. Jaclyn is on track. I have received my activation license. Let's go!

This is Blue Origin's long-awaited entry into the lucrative orbital launch market after years of suborbital flights on smaller New Shepard rockets carrying passengers and payloads on short trips to the edge of space. This will indicate the following.

“This is our first flight, and we have prepared meticulously for it,” Jarrett Jones, New Glenn's senior vice president, said in a statement. “But no amount of ground testing or mission simulation can replace flying this rocket. It's time to fly. No matter what happens, we'll learn and hone that knowledge and move on to the next We will apply it to our startup.”

The milestone also cemented SpaceX's dominance with Bezos, the world's second-richest man, and now the richest person in President-elect Donald Trump's inner circle thanks to large campaign donations. This will likely intensify the conflict between him and Mr. Musk.