After more than ten years of working hard, Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin is finally ready to try launching its New Glenn rocket into space. The launch is scheduled for Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, during a four-hour time slot. The goal is to send a Blue Origin test satellite into orbit and then land the rocket’s lower part on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
This flight is really important for Blue Origin. While the company has taken tourists to the edge of space, it has not been able to send people or satellites into orbit yet. This is different from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has been running longer and can send rockets into orbit easily with their Falcon 9 rocket.
Bezos announced plans for New Glenn back in 2016, but the rocket’s development faced many problems and delays, especially with its main BE-4 engines, which were made by Blue Origin itself. These engines took longer to build than expected, but they have successfully powered another rocket called the Vulcan.
If New Glenn is successful, Blue Origin will join a special group of US companies that can launch satellites into orbit and could become a serious challenger to SpaceX’s strong position in the launch market. More importantly, New Glenn could be the key to Bezos and his big dreams about space travel in the future
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