On Thursday Bezos’ company, Blue Origin launched the New Glenn rocket, and the Musk-owned SpaceX also launched its newly upgraded Starship rocket.
Two of the richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, have ignited the billionaire space race with their attempts to launch the largest rockets in the world on consecutive days. On Thursday, January 16, Bezos’ company Blue Origin saw the maiden launch of its much-awaited New Glenn rocket. The Musk-owned SpaceX also launched its newly upgraded Starship rocket that same night.
While this is Blue Origin’s first attempt, SpaceX was recorded as having launched 134 rockets last year. SpaceX has been launching its Falcon9 rockets and Dragon spacecraft since 2020, New Glenn is much larger and twice as powerful and can accommodate a bigger batch of satellites. But the new Starship is said to be more powerful than New Glenn.
New Glenn’s liftoff from Cape Canaveral was largely successful with only one drawback. Blue Origin failed to land the booster stage of the 98m reusable rocket on a modified cargo ship. The team said that the cargo ship was waiting in the Atlantic Ocean and that upon descent, the booster was launched. Blue Origin’s chief executive Dave Limp admitted that while it was an ambitious dream to land a booster on their very first try, the team would work towards successfully launching it in their future attempts.
Blue Origin team did not allow this one setback to derail their enthusiasm. The company had much to boast about as in their first venture, the team had achieved their goals of reaching the orbit and receiving up to six hours of crucial systems data. This was possible due to the Blue Ring Pathfinder which is a second-stage payload that records the rocket’s operational capabilities.
On the other hand, minutes after it was launched, Starship broke up in space. A mere eight minutes after it was launched, SpaceX mission control reportedly lost contact with Starship which was carrying its first test payload. The payload comprised mock satellites but there were no crew members on board. SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot confirmed the news and said that this most likely happened due to an issue with the upper stage.
Musk has been vocal about his ambitions of facilitating settlers on Mars and the moon. The space race which was a significant aspect of the Cold War during the 60s, has entered a new phase. Governments are not the only parties involved, as private companies, particularly billionaires are more invested in space exploration. Governments are also open to more public-private partnerships for space-related developments. The first private company to launch a rocket into the earth’s orbit, SpaceX has since won a contract with NASA worth more than $1 billion. Blue Origin also hopes to launch a moon lander for NASA in the future.
NASA is also inching away from government funding and is turning to private companies to raise contracts worth billions of dollars. However, while NASA is more involved in studying the moon, Musk is reportedly pushing for more exploration on Mars. In December, he said that the US should first focus on Mars before returning to the moon. Space researchers and experts are anticipating major changes in NASA’s space program, as President Trump has also reiterated his interest in Mars. Bezos on the other hand is assured that the US should focus on both- the moon and Mars.
Both Musk and Bezos are financially capable and politically influential to personally enable their space exploration endeavors. Musk’s closeness with Trump gives him more leverage than Bezos as Musk is the President-elect’s ears on all matters about space. Bezos, however, has donated $1 million for Trump’s inauguration and is working on improving Blue Origin’s dominance in the satellite launching business and giving tough competition to SpaceX.
While there are several arguments in favour of and against the privatization of space research, the reality is that private players are making significant headway in space exploration. Only time will tell how governments can work towards furthering cooperation with these companies to fuel development.