Today's Edition
WASHINGTON (ALETIHAD/AGENCIES)
The New Glenn rocket from Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin on Thursday blasted off from Florida carrying two Mars orbiters in its second-ever flight. The 98-metre-tall rocket, named after the first US astronaut to orbit Earth, took off from Cape Canaveral, as shown by live images shared by Blue Origin.
The launch had previously been postponed twice - once due to bad weather and once due to concerns about the possible effects of a severe solar storm.
NASA said that its ESCAPADE twin spacecraft, deployed from the rocket's second stage, were set to remain in an Earth-proximity orbit for about a year before setting off for Mars around November 2026.
The Mars orbiters should reach the red planet in September 2027 and start a scientific mission there in 2028.
The two-stage New Glenn rocket has been in development for more than a decade. The stages are mounted one above the other and are ignited one after the other as the rocket traverses Earth's atmosphere.
After stage separation, the first, lower stage of the New Glenn is designed to return and land upright in order for it to be reused for a minimum of 25 flights.
With the mission, NASA aims to study the atmosphere of the red planet, among other things. New Glenn's first launch, originally scheduled for 2020, was postponed several times. It finally took place in January. While the rocket reached orbit successfully, the first stage missed its landing
site.
Blue Origin is seeking to one day compete with SpaceX, whose rockets are designed to be partially or fully reusable, which greatly reduces the cost of rocket launches and the waste produced.
