Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company has blasted its first rocket into orbit in a bid to challenge the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.<\/p>\n The New Glenn rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time (07:02 GMT).<\/p>\n It firmly pits the world’s two richest men against each other in a commercial space race, vying to fly bigger and more powerful rockets.<\/p>\n Both want to populate the skies with more satellites, run private space stations, and provide transport for regular trips by people to the Moon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt!” Musk wrote in a post to Bezos on X.<\/p>\n Dave Limp, CEO of Bezos’s space company Blue Origin, said he was “incredibly proud”.<\/p>\n “We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring,” he added.<\/p>\n Bezos’s team overcame technical barriers that caused delays earlier this week when ice formation halted a launch.<\/p>\n Blue Origin’s employees and crowds gathered near Cape Canaveral cheered as the 98 meters-high rocket hurtled into orbit.<\/p>\n But the company failed to land New Glenn’s main rocket engine, or booster, onto a platform in the Atlantic Ocean. <\/p>\n It had hoped that the booster would be reusable for future launches but after about 20 minutes of flight, the company confirmed it had lost the engine.<\/p>\n Bezos’s company Blue Origin has struggled to match the pace set by SpaceX. But this launch will be seen as a major step forward for the business.<\/p>\n The New Glenn rocket was named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth more than 60 years ago.<\/p>\n The rocket is more powerful than SpaceX’s most commonly-used rocket, the Falcon 9. It can also carry more satellites, and Bezos wants to use it as part of his Project Kuiper, which aims to deploy thousands of low-earth satellites to provide broadband services. <\/p>\n That project would compete directly with Musk’s Starlink service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin 25 years ago, claiming he wanted “millions of people working and living in space.”<\/p>\n For years the venture has sent a smaller, resuable rocket called New Shepard to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. It has carried passangers and payloads, including Bezos himself in 2021.<\/p>\n But Blue Origin has been dramatically outperformed by SpaceX, which launched its rockets 134 times last year.<\/p>\n And SpaceX’s new generation of rocket, called Starship, is more powerful still. The company hopes to launch it in its seventh test flight later today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some experts say a successful New Glenn rocket will create real competition between the two companies and could drive down the costs of space operations.<\/p>\n “What you are going to see are these two companies challenge each other to make even greater strides,” suggests Dr Simeon Barber at the Open University in the UK.<\/p>\n Governments have historically spent billions on building rockets and sending missions into space. <\/p>\n But US space agency NASA is increasingly moving away from relying only on public money and has issued huge contracts to private companies to provide rockets and other space services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already received billions of dollars worth of space contracts. <\/p>\n His close relationship with the next US president, Donald Trump, could strengthen his company further.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Blue](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/05ce\/live\/406483d0-d176-11ef-87df-d575b9a434a4.jpg.webp\")
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