Breakthrough: Blue Origin successfully launches rocket to Mars.

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - Billionaire Jeff Bezos's company successfully launched the New Glenn rocket on November 13th along with NASA's twin spacecraft bound for Mars and successfully landed the booster rocket back on Earth.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos's space company made history on November 13th when it successfully recovered its New Glenn rocket after its second flight, ushering in a new era in the commercial space race.

The new Glenn rocket on the launch pad (photo: Blue Origin).

The launch, which had been delayed for days due to adverse weather conditions both on Earth and in space, concluded to jubilant cheers at the launch site at Cape Canaveral.

The rocket booster landed smoothly on a floating platform, an achievement previously only accomplished by Elon Musk's SpaceX with orbital rockets.

Fierce competition

Blue Origin's success comes amidst increasingly fierce competition between the two giants of private space. The US space agency NASA recently opened bids for its planned lunar mission, further intensifying the race.

Jared Isaacman, an ally of Musk and recently re-nominated by President Donald Trump to head NASA, expressed his admiration on X: "Fantastic!" and congratulated Blue Origin. Even Musk didn't hesitate to praise his rival: "Congratulations @JeffBezos and the @BlueOrigin team!"

The New Glenn mission faced numerous delays. On November 9th, the weather on Earth was unfavorable. On November 12th, "increased solar activity" raised concerns at NASA that it could affect the spacecraft.

Even on November 13th, further unexplained glitches from Blue Origin caused delays. Finally, at 3:55 PM local time on November 13th (3:55 AM on November 14th Hanoi time), New Glenn took off.

The New Glenn rocket is 98 meters long on its launch pad (photo: Blue Origin).

Mars missions and the future of reuse.

The 98-meter-long New Glenn rocket is currently carrying NASA's ESCAPADE twin spacecraft to Mars. The mission's goal is to study the climate history of the Red Planet, with the ultimate hope of sending humans to explore it directly. Applause erupted once again as the spacecraft were successfully deployed.

Joseph Westlake, a NASA solar physicist, explained that the "Blue" and "Gold" spacecraft will find a "safe, benign orbit" to "measure space weather over Earth." Then, in the fall of 2026, when the planets achieve an ideal alignment, the spacecraft will begin their journey to Mars and land in 2027.

The successful launch and recovery of the booster rocket opens up the possibility of more frequent flights in the future, not limited by the timing of Earth and Mars' direct alignment (approximately every two years).

New Glenn's maiden flight in January was also marked a success, with the payload reaching orbit and completing tests. However, the first-stage booster was lost during landing. The achievement on November 13th shows Blue Origin is getting closer to its goal of reducing costs by reusing boosters.

"Launch, land, repeat - starting today," declared Eddie Seyffert, one of Blue Origin's live stream commentators.

The launch and landing process of the New Glenn rocket (photo: Blue Origin).

This success comes as the Trump administration is pressuring NASA to accelerate the process of sending humans to the Moon, in a race against China.

George Nield, a senior executive in the aerospace industry, commented that this launch would be an "indicator" of Blue Origin's progress and could show "whether they can play a larger role in lunar exploration in the near future."

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc/dot-pha-blue-origin-thuc-thuc-thanh-cong-vu-phong-ten-lua-day-len-sao-hoa-20251115053514937.htm