Blue Origin's new rocket launches 1st Nasa mission

Blue Origin Llc launched its flagship New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral on Thursday in a crucial test for Jeff Bezos' space company in its quest to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

- Bloomberg

The rocket, roughly 320ft tall, thundered off the launchpad at 3:55pm New York time. It is sending two Rocket Lab Corp.-made spacecraft on a trajectory toward Mars to study how solar winds interact with the planet's atmosphere.

The mission, called Escapade, is the rocket’s second flight ever and its first for Nasa.

Key to Blue Origin’s ambitious plans for space exploration, New Glenn is years behind schedule and has faced a longer-than-expected waiting period of around nine months since its first flight in January.