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Blue Origin launches New Glenn rocket into orbit on first attempt

By Zach Rosenberg |

Blue Origin's New Glenn lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on 16 January. (Blue Origin)

Blue Origin launched its first orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, into space for the first time on 16 January. The New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 36 shortly after 0200 h Eastern Time, following several aborted attempts over the preceding week.

The company reported that the rocket's lone payload, a prototype secondary payload adaptor ring dubbed Blue Ring Pathfinder, entered its planned low-Earth orbit. Although the company intended to land New Glenn's first stage on a dedicated barge in the Atlantic Ocean, preserving it for later reuse, the booster was destroyed during the attempt.

“I'm incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,” Dave Limp, the company's chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We knew landing our booster, So You're Telling Me There's a Chance, on the first try was an ambitious goal. We'll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring.”

The launch also marks Blue Origin's first certification flight for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) programme, which qualifies launch vehicles to loft national security payloads. NSSL awards launches in two categories, called ‘Lanes'. Lane 1 allows launches to be allocated to any provider who can demonstrate orbital launch capability; Blue Origin was awarded a Phase 1 integration study in June 2024, alongside SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. Lane 2 is more restrictive, open only to the most reliable launch providers.

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