Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin achieved a milestone on Thursday, January 16 after its New Glenn rocket completed its first test flight, sending a prototype satellite thousands of miles above the Earth. Named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, the 320-foot rocket launched from Florida’s historic pad, once used for NASA’s Mariner and Pioneer missions decades ago.
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Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, extended his congratulations to Bezos on X (formerly Twitter), recognizing the milestone. He shared a post that reads “Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt! @JeffBezos”.
Bezos replied to Musk’s post with a ‘Thank you’ coupled with a folded hands emoji 🙏.
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos 25 years ago, has been taking paying passengers to the edge of space since 2021, including Bezos himself. These brief trips, launched from Texas, use smaller rockets named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. The New Glenn rocket, launched today, is five times taller.
The company has invested over $1 billion in developing New Glenn’s launch site, transforming the historic Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station into a state-of-the-art facility. Located just nine miles (14 kilometers) from its control centers and rocket factory, the site sits outside NASA’s Kennedy Space Center gates.
Blue Origin aims to conduct six to eight New Glenn flights this year, with the next launch planned for the spring, provided everything goes smoothly.
