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Jeff Bezos Original Blue It successfully launched its New Glenn rocket on Thursday, and also successfully landed the rocket’s booster. The booster rocket, named Never Tell Me the Odds (Han Solo fans will recognize that quote), gently landed on a floating platform called Jacklyn, after Bezos’ late mother. This was the first time Blue Origin had successfully landed a New Glenn rocket booster.
Just before 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday, New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It deployed NASA’s twin Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers spacecraft, named adventurein the designated deceleration orbit, then landed the reusable first stage on Jacqueline in the Atlantic Ocean.
Watch this: Blue Origin lands its new Glenn rocket booster for the first time
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a competitor to Blue Origin, has also successfully landed boosters, but this was the first time Blue Origin had done so. It is seen as an important step given that the two companies plan to reuse the expensive boosters in future flights.
Escapade is on its way to Mars. Two identical small spacecraft, named blue and gold after the colors of the University of California-Berkeley, whose Space Sciences Laboratory manages the mission, were successfully deployed half an hour after launch.
Read more: NASA’s Escapade mission may finally reveal how the Martian atmosphere works
The blue and gold will wrap around a point in space known as Lagrange-2. Later this month, they will make a quick flyby around Earth and then depart for Mars. The dual orbiters are expected to reach the Red Planet by November 2027.