Jeff Bezos Unveils New Rocket
Jeff Bezos on Monday unveiled a reusable rocket expected to compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other companies for commercial satellite launches. Bezos'Blue Origin space company is designing two versions of the rocket, named New Glenn, a nod to John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and the last surviving member of NASA’s original Mercury Seven astronauts.
Glenn is designed to launch commercial satellites and to fly humans into space, according to Bezos, also the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com.
Both versions of New Glenn will use a first stage powered by seven methane-burning BE-4 engines. The company is building a launch site and test facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and a rocket manufacturing plant at NASA’s adjacent Kennedy Space Center.
Blue Origin intends to fly New Glenn’s first stage back to a landing pad so it can be refurbished and reflown, an approach that tech billionaire entrepreneur Musk is taking with his Falcon rockets. SpaceX so far has successfully landed rockets six times, twice on the ground and four times on a platform floating in the ocean.
However, the seventh landing of SpaceX was a failure, as the rocket was destroyed earlier this month during a routine prelaunch test two days before liftoff.