Bezos's Blue Origin sends reusable rocket to space on first test flight
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Jeff Bezos's space company Blue Origin has successfully launched its rocket into orbit on its first test flight. New Glenn - described by Blue Origin as a "giant, reusable rocket" and designed for a minimum of 25 flights - was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early on Thursday morning.
As it happened: New Glenn blasts into space. Coming after a planned launch on Monday was delayed over a build-up of ice on the spacecraft, all seven of the rocket's main engines successfully fired at lift-off at 2.03am (7.03am in the UK). Watching from Mission Control nearby, Bezos and company employees broke out in cheers and applause as the rocket went orbital - the main objective of Blue Origin's launch - around 10 minutes after launch.
Ariane Cornell, vice president of in-space systems for the company, said in a live stream that the launch was a "momentous step" and a "historic launch". "We hit our key, critical, number-one objective, we got to orbit safely," she said. "And y'all, we did it on our first go.".
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The second stage of the rocket is now gliding through orbit, carrying the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload, and its upper stage will later attempt to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up over a remote part of the ocean. Elon Musk, head of rival company SpaceX, congratulated Blue Origin and Bezos "on reaching orbit on the first attempt".
