Billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk-owned SpaceX and Jeff Bezos-led Blue Origin are two privately-held space exploration companies that are engaged in a heated race to space. SpaceX has a head-start because it has already conducted several successful space exploration and orbital missions to date, and is always in the news. Meanwhile, Bezos’ Blue Origin is gaining ground steadily as the company tried its first space rocket take-off.
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News agencies were flooded with two notable events conducted by these two companies yesterday; while one succeeded, the other failed. Their feat only proves that their mission is highly ambitious, with massive research and development costs that go into such space operations. Let’s learn about what happened with their rocket launches on January 16.
SpaceX’s Starship Blasts in Space
SpaceX conducted its seventh unmanned Starship rocket launch from the launchpad in Texas, somewhere around 5:30 p.m. ET. The rocket consists of a reusable booster that thrusts the spacecraft into orbit. The test flight unfortunately failed since after the booster propelled the spacecraft, it blasted into the sky. Pieces of the blasted spacecraft filled the sky like fireworks and also disrupted air travel in the Caribbean region for a few hours.
The test flight’s mission was to send Starship into space and return to Earth, landing in the designated area in the Indian Ocean. On the brighter side, Starship’s super heavy booster successfully returned to the launchpad, as planned. This was the second time the booster returned to its designed trajectory, with the first success in October last year. The reusability of boosters helps space exploration companies drastically reduce their launch costs.
For now, SpaceX and authorities are involved in finding the debris. SpaceX said that a small leak in the spaceship caused high pressure and led to the mid-air blast. Such failed missions are typically designed to fly and fall into designated pre-hazard areas in oceans to protect the general public.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn Makes a Successful Flight
Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket took off for the first time from its Cape Canaveral, Florida launchpad around 2 a.m. ET, hours before SpaceX’s failed launch. New Glenn’s launch was initially scheduled for earlier in January but eventually took off yesterday after several delays. The mission’s primary objective was to send the rocket’s upper stage to orbit. The part carried test systems for a Blue Origin spacecraft, and it did so successfully.
Unfortunately for Bezos, the rocket’s booster did not land back as planned on a remotely controlled ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently, Blue Origin will have to investigate the booster loss and submit the research to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) before undertaking any other New Glenn missions. Public safety is of utmost importance in such missions, and Blue Origin said it will submit the findings within 24 hours.
Bezos is happy that Blue Origin’s first attempt at sending New Glenn to space worked out successfully, even though the booster return was a setback. Despite the heavy competition from Musk’s SpaceX, Bezos believes there is plenty of room for space exploration companies to operate simultaneously in the segment.
Concluding Thoughts
Both SpaceX and Blue Origin aim to carry commercial and national-security satellites into orbit as well as astronaut crews to space in the long run. NASA, for sure, wants both SpaceX and Blue Origin to become equally successful and competitive to reduce dependence on a single entity and also bring down prices for space flights. In the meantime, both billionaires have already founded two sector-leading companies, Tesla (TSLA) and Amazon (AMZN), and continue to reap the benefits from their success.
