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On Thursday, January 16th, at 02:03 AM EST, Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn<\/em> rocket took off on its maiden flight from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was a momentous event for the company, as the two-stage heavy-lift rocket has been in development for many years, features a partially reusable design, and is vital to Bezos\u2019 plan of \u201cbuilding a road to space.\u201d While the company failed to retrieve the first-stage booster during the flight test, the rocket made it to orbit and successfully deployed its payload -the Blue Ring <\/em>Pathfinder <\/em>\u2013 to orbit (which has since begun gathering data).<\/p>\n According to the most recent statement by Blue Origin, the second stage reached its final orbit following two successful burns of its two BE-3U engines. The successful launch of NG-1 means that Blue Origin can now launch payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), a huge milestone for the commercial space company. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly proud New Glenn achieved orbit on its first attempt,\u201d said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp in a company statement. \u201cWe knew landing our booster, So You\u2019re Telling Me There\u2019s a Chance<\/em>, on the first try was an ambitious goal. We\u2019ll learn a lot from today and try again at our next launch this spring. Thank you to all of Team Blue for this incredible milestone.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The rocket is named in honor of NASA astronaut John Glenn, a member of the Mercury 7 and the first American astronaut to orbit Earth as part of the Liberty Bell 7<\/em> mission on July 21st, 1961. This is in keeping with Blue Origin\u2019s history of naming their launch vehicles after famous astronauts, such as the New Shepard<\/em> rocket. This single-stage suborbital launch vehicle is named in honor of Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to go to space as part of the Freedom 7<\/em> mission on May 5th, 1961.<\/p>\n \n