Blue Origin Rocket Ready For Flight

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is now preparing their powerful New Glenn rocket for its delayed but long-awaited maiden flight, kicking off a high-stakes bid to compete head-to-head with Elon Musk's SpaceX and its industry dominating Falcon family of rockets.

While more than one successful test flight will be needed to demonstrate the reliability needed for launches of costly NASA probes, high-priority national security payloads and other commercial spacecraft, the New Glenn, nearly 10 years after Bezos announced the project, is expected to be a viable alternative.

Mounted atop pad 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the 321-foot-tall rocket is scheduled for blast off at 1 a.m. EST Monday, the opening of a three-hour window. Blue Origin had hoped to launch the rocket Friday, then Sunday, but both opportunities were ruled out due to rough seas in the booster landing zone.

Like SpaceX's Falcon rockets, the first stage of the New Glenn, powered by seven methane-burning BE-4 engines generating a combined 3.8 million pounds of thrust, was designed to be reusable.

After boosting the rocket's upper stage out of the lower atmosphere three minutes and 10 seconds after launch, the 188-foot-tall first stage will separate and attempt to land on a 380-foot-long custom-built ship named after Bezos' mother, Jacklyn, that will be stationed downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.

From launch to touchdown: nine minutes and 28 seconds. While SpaceX tested its Falcon 9 landing system with ocean splashdowns before attempting an actual landing, Blue Origin is making the attempt on the rocket's maiden flight. Appropriately enough, the company named the booster "So You're Telling Me There's A Chance."