This time, it made it.
After a launch scrub on Monday morning, Blue Origin' New Glenn rocket successfully reached orbit early Thursday morning after a spectacular, successful launch from Launch Pad 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, the brainchild of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, the attempt to get into the rocket business and compete with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, was originally set to launch Monday at 1 a.m. after a planned launch early Sunday was scrubbed due to high ocean waves around its planned return site. Thursday's window again opened at 1 a.m. Like Monday's attempt, time was added to the countdown during fueling, and there was a delay when a wayward boat entered the launch range.
Everything came together at 2:03 a.m. when NG-1's seven engines came to life at 2:03 a.m. and the rocket cleared the tower, a moment launch managers said would "build a road to space.'
But, like with any other new venture, there was at least one bump in the road. The booster that helped New Glenn transition from its first to second stage into orbit stopped transmitting, and Mission Control lost contact with it, and its return landing to the recovery ship Jacklyn ultimately failed.
The plan for the Mission NG-1 for the 321-foot tall rocket is to take hardware for Blue Ring, a satellite foundation for transporting future customer payloads to orbit.
Thus far, Blue Origin crafts have only launched from near Van Horn in west Texas.
