ScientistPankaj: Space & Physics: Blue Origin's first orbital launch

Friday, January 17, 2025

Space & Physics: Blue Origin's first orbital launch

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Scientific American

January 16—This week was busy for spaceflight, with not one but two historic launches lifting off. Our top story details the long-awaited inaugural flight of Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin's titanic New Glenn rocket, which took place early this morning. Another launch early Wednesday morning rocketed the commercially-built, experiment-packed Blue Ghost lander (plus two Japanese spacecraft) to the moon. Elsewhere, we have stories on strange hypothetical paraparticles, sky sights to watch in 2025, the curious history of Venn diagrams, and more. Enjoy!

—Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space and Physics

Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Finally Takes Flight

The heavy-lift New Glenn rocket soared to success, reaching orbit on its highly anticipated inaugural flight but failing to land its booster on an ocean barge

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is seen on the launch pad on Dec. 19, 2024, at Launch Complex-36 during a wet dress rehearsal test ahead of the rocket's maiden flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida

Top Stories

An illustration of a private U.S. lander on the surface of the moon

Blue Ghost, a Private U.S. Lunar Lander, Launches to the Moon

A Texas-built lander named Blue Ghost marks another test of NASA's new lunar delivery initiative

Michael Greshko

Conceptual illustration of a Majorana fermion which is also its own antiparticle. A fermion is a sub-atomic particle that has a half-integer spin

Exotic 'Paraparticles' That Defy Categorization May Exist in Many Dimensions

Theoretical physicists predict the existence of exotic "paraparticles" that defy classification and could have quantum computing applications

Davide Castelvecchi; Nature magazine

A small blue sphere orbits a larger green sphere against a purple background, with

Largest Camera in the World Will Look for Planet Nine

Pluto was unseated as the ninth planet in our solar system. Will we find a real Planet Nine?

Rachel Feltman; Clara Moskowitz; Fonda Mwangi; Madison Goldberg, contract writer

A partial solar eclipse viewed from Southern Utah.

Here's What to Watch in 2025's Skies

The heavens will provide a bounty of viewing treasures in the coming year

Series of colorful Venn diagrams made of various numbers of circles or ovals

The Curious History of Venn Diagrams

A look at the curious history of Venn diagrams and how they blend logic with geometry

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A small blue sphere orbits a larger blue sphere on a purple and blue background, with

A Death from Bird Flu, a Cosmic Kiss and Wildfires in L.A.

In this week's news rundown, norovirus cases are up, a bird flu death is reported and Los Angeles has experienced devastating fires.

Rachel Feltman; Fonda Mwangi; Jeffery DelViscio, staff editor

Cropped image of a chart showing annual global temperature anomalies over time, with the 2024 anomaly of 1.6 degrees Celsius highlighted.

Earth Surpasses 1.5 Degrees C in Hottest Year on Record

The year 2024 was the hottest on record and the first to top 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. All 10 of the hottest years have been in the past decade

Andrea Thompson, staff editor

From the Archive

Blue Origin Makes Historic Reusable Rocket Landing in Epic Test Flight

No other agency or company had previously successfully landed a reusable rocket