Welcome to the week of the megarockets, hosted by the richest man alive and his runner-up.
Until recently, the only major player sending massive rockets into space was Elon Musk. His company SpaceX, which was recently valued at $350 billion, completed its sixth test of the 400-foot-tall Starship in late November. Its seventh test is scheduled to come as early as Jan. 10, according to Musk.
“The upcoming flight test will launch a new generation ship with significant upgrades, attempt Starship’s first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster,” SpaceX wrote in a recent blog post.
Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, which are meant to replicate the size and weight of SpaceX’s satellites and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Ideally, the Super Heavy Booster will be caught by SpaceX’s launch tower, but it will default to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico if necessary. A number of other tests will also be carried out.
SpaceX’s Starship launches from southern Texas are a major spectacle, usually drawing almost every eye in the aerospace community. On Friday, it could be slightly overshadowed by a similarly massive rival.
Amazon (AMZN+1.28%) Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin has spent the last eight or so years working on its New Glenn vehicle, a 322-foot rocket with two stages, the first of which is designed to be reusable for 25 flights. Its maiden voyage has been repeatedly delayed over the years, but the Federal Aviation Administration finally granted Blue Origin a launch license last month.
The vehicle, which has no crew, is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station no earlier than Wednesday. According to SpaceFlight Now, Blue Origin is targeting a launch at 1 a.m. ET on Friday, several hours ahead of SpaceX’s plans for a 5 p.m. ET liftoff.
New Glenn will carry the Blue Ring Pathfinder, which will test the technology created for the company’s Blue Ring, a transfer vehicle for delivering satellites to their planned orbits that can carry 3,000 kilograms of payload. New Glenn’s booster, “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,” will attempt to land on a recovery vessel named Jacklyn, after Bezos’ mother.
New Glenn could become monumental for Blue Origin, which has deals to launch satellites with companies like Amazon and AST SpaceMobile and plans to launch a space station called Orbital Reef. Blue Origin has completed 28 missions to space as of November, including nine trips sending a total of 44 people into space.
“I think it’s going to be the best business that I’ve ever been involved in, but it’s going to take a while,” Bezos said of Blue Origin while speaking at The New York Times (NYT-0.06%)’ DealBook Summit last month.
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