Named New Glenn, the rocket is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as soon as Wednesday 1:00 am (0600 GMT), with a backup window on Friday, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory.
“Next stop launch,“ Bezos declared on X, sharing a video of the towering rocket’s engines roaring to life.
It will mark Blue Origin’s long-awaited entry into the lucrative orbital launch market after years of suborbital flights with its smaller New Shepard rocket, which carries passengers and payloads on brief trips to the edge of space.
- Space barons -
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets have become industry workhorses, serving clients from commercial satellite operators to the Pentagon and NASA, which relies on them to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The vessel, playfully named “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,“ reflects the challenge of landing a reusable rocket on the first attempt, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said on X.
“If I were still a senior executive at NASA, I’d be thrilled to finally have some competition to the Falcon 9,“ G. Scott Hubbard, NASA’s former “Mars Czar” now at Stanford University, told AFP, adding that increased competition could help drive down launch costs.
For now, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, capturing the lion’s share of the market while rivals like United Launch Alliance, Arianespace and Rocket Lab trail far behind.
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 -- two years before Musk started SpaceX -- but the company has progressed at a far slower pace, reflecting a more cautious approach.
If successful, New Glenn will offer the US government “dissimilar redundancy” -- alternative systems that provide backups if one fails, said Pace.
Musk’s closeness to Trump has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, especially with private astronaut Jared Isaacman -- a business associate of Musk -- slated to become the next NASA chief.
Bezos, however, has been making his own overtures, paying his respects to his former foe during a visit to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence, while Amazon has said it would donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee.
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