Blue Origin is set to launch its New Glenn rocket in a long-delayed, uncrewed test mission that would help pave the way for the space venture founded by Jeff Bezos to compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The flight of Blue Origin’s 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket, scheduled for a three-hour launch window that opens at 1 a.m. Sunday, marks the company’s first attempt to reach orbit, a critical milestone as it seeks to fly satellites and payloads for the Pentagon, NASA and commercial companies.
The flight from Launch Complex 36 on Florida’s Space Coast comes as Amazon is preparing to begin launching what it expects to be a constellation of Kuiper Internet satellites to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink system, which has already launched nearly 7,000 spacecraft and has millions of subscribers.
Blue Origin, which was founded in 2000, has been working to develop New Glenn for more than a decade. Bezos introduced the rocket in a 2016 blog post and vowed that it would fly “before the end of this decade.” But the road to the launchpad has been marked by significant delays with the rocket and engines that power the first stage.
While Blue Origin stumbled, SpaceX has soared. Musk’s venture launched its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets 134 times last year, more orbital flights than the rest of the world combined, according to SpaceNews.
China performed a total of 68 launches. SpaceX is also working on its next-generation Starship rocket, the world’s largest and most powerful — and one that is designed to be fully reusable.