Blue Origin, the aerospace corporations founded by Jeff Bezos, has succeeded for the first time in recovering a reused rocket booster. Observers said Blue Origin, which has been chasing SpaceX in the heavy-lift launch market, has made meaningful progress in the competition over reuse technology.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Reuters, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket launched on the 19th (local time) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The first-stage booster then landed on an Atlantic Ocean platform, successfully completing recovery.
The booster used for this mission is the vehicle that flew on the NG-2 mission in Nov. last year. Although Blue Origin had previously launched New Glenn, those flights all used new boosters. This is the first time the full sequence of launch and recovery has been completed with a reused booster.
However, the payload mission did not go as smoothly as hoped. AST SpaceMobile's satellite "BlueBird-7," carried by New Glenn, reportedly entered an orbit different from the target and failed to establish communications. Blue Origin plans to deorbit the satellite.
Booster reuse is regarded as a key technology that can lower launch costs in the space industry, where enormous expense is required. If vehicles can be used repeatedly, it improves the economics of commercial launches and enables more frequent launch schedules.
SpaceX is considered the current leader in this field, but Blue Origin is seeking differentiation with the roughly 98-meter-tall super-heavy rocket New Glenn. By touting its large payload capacity as a strength, the company aims to target not only commercial satellites but also a wide range of future space mission demand.