Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket blasts off with Mars satellites in tow

Blue Origin successfully launched its massive New Glenn rocket on Thursday following days of delays, with the spacecraft carrying NASA’s twin satellites bound for Mars.

Thursday’s mission marked the second flight for billionaire Jeff Bezos’ 321-foot-long spacecraft, with the rocket soaring over Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Along with carrying the Blue and Gold satellites for NASA’s Escapade mission, Blue Origin also successfully landed the New Glenn booster back to Earth, a key feature for the reusable rocket that will allow the company to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Named after astronaut John Glenn, the New Glenn rocket is five times bigger than the New Shepard ships that have sent wealthy clients into space.

Bezos has touted his rocket as the future of space flight over rival SpaceX, with the New Glenn missions aimed at achieving a landmark mission to Mars.

It took its first big step on Thursday with the launch of the Escapade satellites, which were deployed from the rocket and will spend about a year in Earth’s orbit, 1 million miles away.

The Blue and Gold satellites are expected to hover around Earth until next fall, when Earth and Mars are at their closest.

At that point, the satellites will get a gravity boost and propel themselves to the red planet, arriving in 2027 to map out Mars’ upper atmosphere and scattered magnetic fields.

Along with assisting on Mars missions, Blue Origin plans to launch a prototype lunar lander on a demo mission for the New Glenn rocket in the coming months.

The company already has a NASA contract for the third moon landing as part of the Artemis program, with the first two initially going to SpaceX.

But acting NASA chief Sean Duffy last month reopened the contract for the first crew landing over concerns that SpaceX was not making enough progress.

SpaceX has seen its Starship tests marred this year by repeated explosions, with both Musk and Bezos’ companies presenting accelerated plans in a bid for the first crew landing contract.

The historic mission would represent America’s return to the moon for the first time in half a century during the Apollo program.

The US is currently aiming to reach the lunar surface by the end of the decade in order to beat China’s own planned trip to the moon.

With Post wires