Highlights
- Blue Origin reused a New Glenn rocket booster for the first time on Sunday.
- NASA has pushed Artemis moon landing back to 2028, relying on Musk or Bezos hardware.
- Blue Origin selected for lunar lander on two separate Artemis missions.
The achievement puts Blue Origin meaningfully closer to SpaceX, which pioneered the practice of reusing rocket boosters and has recycled its Falcon 9 hardware across hundreds of missions over the past decade.
Musk has repeatedly accused Bezos of copying SpaceX's approach, though Blue Origin maintains its New Glenn rocket is a distinct machine.
At 322ft tall, New Glenn is considerably larger than Falcon 9 and is capable of carrying heavier payloads into orbit.
Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000 and has been entirely funded by the former Amazon chief. The company began developing New Glenn more than a decade ago.
The rocket made its debut launch in January last year, and successfully landed its booster on its second mission in November last year.
Sunday's flight was the first to recover a booster that had already flown once before, a milestone the company has been working towards since the programme began.
Moon missions at stake
The rivalry between the two men now has direct consequences for NASA's Artemis programme. The American space agency has pushed back its crewed lunar landing to 2028 as part of the Artemis IV mission.
That flight will depend on either Musk's Starship system or Blue Origin's Blue Moon lunar lander to bring astronauts to the surface of the Moon for the first time since 1972.
NASA has also selected Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket to carry the lunar landing system for Artemis V, the second planned crewed moon landing, also expected in late 2028.
Blue Origin has therefore been chosen for two separate Artemis missions, giving Bezos a significant role in shaping America's return to the Moon.
SpaceX, meanwhile, continues to develop Starship, its fully reusable superheavy rocket standing at 400ft tall.
The vehicle is intended to be the most capable rocket ever built and is central to NASA's long-term lunar ambitions.
SpaceX memorably caught a returning Starship booster in mid-air during a test flight in October 2024, but the programme has since encountered a series of delays.
