Blue Origin’s powerful New Glenn rocket had a very big day on Thursday (Nov. 13), and a new video lets us all relive part of it.
Previously, only one company had ever pulled off this dramatic maneuver — SpaceX, which has pioneered the recovery and reuse of orbital rockets.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos celebrated the New Glenn landing on X, posting several videos of the 188-foot-tall (57 meters) booster steering its way through the sky toward Jacklyn.
One video showed the landing itself, during which the booster sidled over to Jacklyn rather than drop directly onto it from above.
“We nominally target a few hundred feet away from Jacklyn to avoid a severe impact if engines fail to start or start slowly,” Bezos wrote in the Friday morning (Nov. 14) X post that featured this video. “We’ll incrementally reduce that conservatism over time. We are all excited and grateful for yesterday. Amazing performance by the team! Gradatim Ferociter.”
(Gradatim Ferociter, Latin for “Step by Step, Ferociously,” is Blue Origin’s motto.)
Blue Origin named the first stage that flew on Thursday “Never Tell Me the Odds,” a nod to the perceived improbability of a successful touchdown.
“It turns out ‘Never Tell Me The Odds’ had perfect odds — never before in history has a booster this large nailed the landing on the second try,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a company statement. “This is just the beginning as we rapidly scale our flight cadence and continue delivering for our customers.”
Each New Glenn first stage is designed to fly at least 25 times, according to Blue Origin. “Never Tell Me the Odds” looks intact — startlingly clean, in fact — in post-landing photos, so don’t be surprised to see the booster on the pad again before too much longer.