(Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it has issued a commercial space launch license for Jeff Bezos’ rocket company’s New Glenn launch.
Blue Origin entered a highly competitive field it has long aspired to join when the U.S. Department of Defense selected the company, along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, to compete for national safety space missions.
The Pentagon had made the first selections in June under a $5.6 billion program.
The five-year license allows Blue Origin to fly orbital missions from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, landing the New Glenn reusable first stage on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the FAA said in a statement.
New Glenn’s debut will be a certification mission that the US Space Force requires before the company can begin launching national security satellites.
The debut mission was previously intended to launch two NASA spacecraft to Mars before the end of October, but New Glenn had not completed development at the time, prompting NASA to pull the spacecraft from the rocket.
Instead, New Glenn will launch technology related to its Blue Ring program, an industry that will provide maneuverable spacecraft to the Pentagon.
SpaceX has dominated the launch industry with its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket and is testing its next-generation rocket, Starship, which is designed to be fully reusable.
During a test flight in October, Starship’s towering booster was able to return from the edge of space to its launch pad in Texas for the first time.
Blue Origin, on the other hand, has struggled to bring its massive New Glenn rocket to market. In December last year, it tapped Amazon (NASDAQ:) veteran Dave Limp to accelerate development of its New Glenn rocket.
