Blue Origin launches NASA Mars mission and nails booster landing

AFP | London

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Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket on Thursday with NASA twin spacecraft destined for Mars aboard, and in a breakthrough nailed the landing of its booster.

The launch was stalled for days over weather both on Earth and in space, but it was worth the wait: in the rocket’s second-ever flight, Blue Origin managed to recover the booster for reuse.

Ecstatic cheers rang out at the launch site in Florida’s Cape Canaveral as the booster gracefully stuck its landing on a floating platform. Prior to Thursday, only Elon Musk’s SpaceX had managed to accomplish such a maneuver with an orbital-class rocket.

Blue Origin’s accomplishment comes amid intensified rivalry between the two billionaire-owned private space companies, as the US space agency NASA recently opened up bids for its planned Moon mission.

“Damn that was exciting!” said Jared Isaacman -- a Musk ally who President Donald Trump recently nominated again to head NASA -- on X, congratulating Blue Origin.

A handful of figures at SpaceX also had praise for their rivals, including Musk himself: “Congratulations @ JeffBezos and the @BlueOrigin team!” he said on X.

The launch was repeatedly delayed, on Sunday over weather on Earth, and on Wednesday over weather in space.

The second postponement was over “highly elevated solar activity” that NASA was worried could impact or damage its spacecraft.

And multiple glitches meant delays yet again on Thursday -- hold-ups Blue Origin did not explain. But at 3:55 pm (2055 GMT), New Glenn finally blasted off.