- Jeff Bezos just scored a huge win: Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit.
- Now it’s the turn of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is set to launch Starship for the seventh time later Thursday.
- The two billionaires are locked in a race to dominate the global space industry.
Ahead of the most important moment in Blue Origin’s history, Jeff Bezos couldn’t help feeling nervous.
“I’m worried about everything,” the billionaire Amazon founder told Ars Technica’s Eric Berger on Sunday, as Blue Origin’s technicians prepped the company’s 32-story-tall New Glenn rocket for its first launch into orbit.
“We’ve done a lot of work, we’ve done a lot of testing, but there are some things that can only be tested in flight,” Bezos said.
In the end, he needn’t have worried. After a series of delays due to a vehicle subsystem issue, New Glenn finally roared into orbit in the early hours of Thursday, smashing through a barrier many space companies never cross on their first attempts.
The launch was a huge milestone for Blue Origin, which Bezos founded in 2000.
It is a big step toward Blue Origin’s ambitions of using reusable rockets to regularly carry satellites and NASA astronauts into space, and proved that the rocket company can go toe-to-toe with its rivals in the new space race.
One of those rivals was watching closely.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk — who has clashed with Bezos personally away from their respective business rivalries — congratulated Blue Origin’s founder on the successful launch.
The spotlight will now turn to SpaceX, which is set to launch its own mega-rocket Starship for the seventh time just hours after Bezos’ company completed the feat for the first.
SpaceX steps up to the plate
SpaceX dominates the commercial space launch industry, launching more rockets into orbit than the rest of the world combined last year and making headlines around the world when it successfully caught Starship’s 232-foot-tall rocket booster in October.
The company’s latest launch, which is set for 4 p.m. CST on Thursday but could be delayed, will see it attempt the booster catch again and also demonstrate Starship’s ability to deploy payloads into orbit by releasing several “dummy” Starlink satellites.
Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have ambitious launch schedules for 2025, meaning this will likely not be the first time Musk and Bezos will face off in dueling rocket launches.
SpaceX has signaled it will aim to launch Starship up to 25 times in 2025, while Blue Origin is planning to capitalize on New Glenn’s success by launching the giant rocket as many as 10 times this year.
Both companies have contracts worth billions with NASA’s Artemis program, with Starship and Blue Origin’s “Blue Moon” lunar lander set to carry astronauts to the moon over the next decade.
Blue Origin is also set to carry satellites into orbit for Amazon’s Project Kuiper, the e-commerce giant’s rival to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. Amazon previously bought launch slots for Kuiper from SpaceX.
Space industry braces for Trump
While Blue Origin has finally joined the orbital big leagues, SpaceX could still have a crucial advantage: Musk’s newfound political influence.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has been elevated to “first buddy” status in the incoming administration thanks to his support of Trump’s presidential campaign, and is set to play a crucial role heading up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump has already announced that Jared Isaacman will be NASA’s next administrator. Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut, has flown multiple commercial missions for SpaceX and has voiced support for Musk’s ambitions of colonizing Mars.
SpaceX has also got a boost from Sean Duffy, Trump’s nominee for Transportation Secretary, who told lawmakers in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday he would review penalties imposed on the company by the Federal Aviation Authority, which has been a frequent target of Musk’s ire.
By contrast, Bezos has been attempting to patch up his complex and, at times, antagonistic relationship with Trump.
The billionaire flew into Mar-a-Lago for dinner with Trump and Musk last month and told The New York Times’ Dealbook conference he was “optimistic” about Trump’s second term.
Ahead of New Glenn’s launch, he told Reuters that one thing he wasn’t nervous about was the bromance between the new president and his greatest rival.
“Elon has been very clear that he’s doing this for the public interest and not for his personal gain,” Bezos said. “And I take him at face value.”
