Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin successfully launched its largest rocket, New Glenn, into orbit for the first time early on Thursday, more than four years later than its planned debut.
The 90-meter rocket, which is intended to be partially reusable, blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral and the upper-stage Blue Ring spaceship separated from the booster and reached its intended orbit.
However, the first-stage booster, named So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, was lost in its final descent towards a landing barge in the west Atlantic.
Video of the launch (which takes place just after 1hr54m)
Blue Origin, which had originally aimed for a first flight in 2020, said the primary objective of the much-delayed mission, part of the rocket's national security space launch certification flight, was achieved.
The second-stage Blue Ring ship was said to in its final orbit following two successful burns of its engines, sending and receiving data and "performing well".
CEO Dave Limp said he was proud that New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt and that landing the booster on the first try was "an ambitious goal".
"We’ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring."
Future New Glenn missions will carry unmanned lunar landers as part of NASA’s Artemis program, where there are plans to follow this with crewed landers.
As well as NASA, other customers that have booked rides on New Glenn include Amazon.com Inc's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Project Kuiper, AST SpaceMobile Inc (NASDAQ:ASTS) and other telecommunications providers.
Jarrett Jones, who is managing the New Glenn project for the company, said the team is "focused on ramping our launch cadence and manufacturing rates".
The next launch, expected at an unconfirmed window in the spring, will see the rocket carry a pair of identical spacecraft on NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission, according to the spaceflightnow website.
Two satellites manufactured by Rocket Lab and named Blue and Gold will make a roughly 11-month journey to Mars where they will then perform about an 11-month science mission.
This launch will also feature a landing attempt on a barge in the Atlantic.