Watch- Video of historic moment as Blue Origin successfully lands Mars-bound New Glenn rocket

Blue Origin successfully landed its Mars-bound New Glenn booster, a key step toward matching SpaceX’s reusable rocket model.

Updated on: Nov 14, 2025, 03:41:54 IST

By Shirin Gupta

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Blue Origin has successfully landed its Mars-bound New Glenn booster, marking a major milestone in Jeff Bezos’ company’s push to compete in the reusable rocket market.

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Nov. 13. (AP)

The achievement places Blue Origin closer to rival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 reusability model, advancing prospects for future commercial and NASA missions.

Blue Origin's 321-foot-tall New Glenn rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on November 13, 2025.

The mission carried the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft for NASA and a demonstration payload for Viasat, the AP news reported.

The rocket's first-stage booster autonomously landed upright on the sea-based platform “Jacklyn”, which is approximately 375 miles downrange in the Atlantic. The AP marked this as a standout achievement in the recovery phase.

New Glenn's inaugural launch in January 2025 achieved orbit but failed to land the booster.

ESCAPADE will be stationed near Earth for a year

According to AP, the ESCAPADE is set to arrive at Mars in 2027. Next Fall, when Earth and Mars are in ideal alignment, Earth's gravity will help ESCAPADE travel to the red planet.

The spacecraft will examine the outer atmosphere and scattered magnetic fields of Mars after it has circumnavigated the planet. It will examine how these atmospheres interact with the solar wind.

The data is expected to help explain how the planet changed from being wet and warm to being dry and dusty by illuminating the mechanisms underlying the fleeing Martian atmosphere. Scientists are also expecting to figure out the most effective ways to shield astronauts from the intense radiation on Mars.

Also Read: Blue Origin’s all-women flight sparks hoax claims, Katy Perry trolled; read

“We really, really want to understand the interaction of the solar wind with Mars better than we do now,” Escapade’s lead scientist, Rob Lillis of the University of California, Berkeley, said ahead of the launch.

After the booster landed, company employees chanted “Next stop, moon!” AP reported.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shirin Gupta
Shirin Gupta is a content producer with the Hindustan Times. She covers everything between politics, entertainment and sports at the US desk. Shirin got interested in political journalism during her time as a web editor at her college newspaper NCC News in Syracuse when she first started seeing the effects of national politics in life of her fellow colleagues. Shirin has worked on a wide range of fast-moving and developing stories locally when she was at NCC editing accessible reports for the audience. Her current role requires her to track real-time updates, verify information and present balanced coverage across diverse beats. Covering US politics from an international newsroom perspective has further deepened her understanding of how domestic decisions can have far-reaching global consequences. With a keen interest in international affairs, Shirin continues to build her expertise in geopolitics, policy shifts, and cross-border developments. She aims to learn and evolve her reporting in matters of geopolitics and international issues. Outside the newsroom Shirin writes about books and music for her personal blog. She is an avid consumer of pop culture and reveres literature.Read More

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