Bezos’ Blue Origin will get FAA license for its first New Glenn rocket launch

(Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration mentioned on Friday that it has issued a industrial area launch license for Blue Origin’s — Jeff Bezos’ rocket firm — New Glenn launch.

Blue Origin entered right into a extremely aggressive space it has lengthy sought to affix, because the U.S. Division of Protection picked the corporate, together with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed three way partnership United Launch Alliance, to compete for nationwide safety area missions.

The Pentagon had made preliminary choices beneath a $5.6 billion program in June.

The five-year license permits Blue Origin to conduct orbital missions from the Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station in Florida with the reusable New Glenn first stage touchdown on a barge within the Atlantic Ocean, the FAA mentioned in a press release.

The New Glenn debut shall be a certification mission required by the U.S. Area Drive earlier than the corporate can start launching nationwide safety satellites.

The debut mission was beforehand meant to launch a pair of NASA spacecraft to Mars earlier than late October, however New Glenn had not accomplished its growth by then, prompting NASA to maneuver the spacecraft off the rocket.

As an alternative, New Glenn will launch expertise associated to its Blue Ring program, a line of enterprise that can supply maneuverable spacecraft to the Pentagon.

SpaceX has dominated the launch trade with its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket and is within the strategy of testing its next-generation rocket, Starship, which is designed to be totally reusable.

Throughout a flight take a look at in October, Starship’s towering first-stage booster was capable of return from the sting of area to its Texas launch pad for the primary time.

Blue Origin, alternatively, has struggled to carry its big New Glenn rocket to market. In December final 12 months, it tapped Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) veteran Dave Limp to expedite growth of its New Glenn rocket.