‘Extremely excited’ Cape Canaveral crowd cheers as New Glenn launches

On January 16, 2025By Littum

The seven BE-4 engines roared — sending admiring onlookers into shrieks and cheers — as Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket ascended into the clouds on glowing white propulsion.

The massive 320-foot rocket blasted out of Launch Complex 36 on its maiden flight early Thursday and soared into the sky as crowds on Cape Canaveral’s beach watched. The rocket was so large that it was clearly visible to those on the Brevard coast right by the lift.

For many, this first flight was eagerly awaited.

Russell Stein, a New York native and winter resident of Brevard County, recalled first coming to Florida in the 1960s to surf, then watching Apollo 8 lift off with “a million of his closest friends.” He saw NASA astronauts launch to the moon, the space shuttle take off, and the ascent of private space.

New Glenn would be just as historic, he said as he waited on the beach for that night’s launch.

“Now it’s all one company, and that’s why it’s so important,” Stein said.

Blue Origin, which already successfully launched its single-stage New Shepard rocket from Texas, is now breaking into the orbital payload market. Currently, SpaceX dominates the orbital payload market with their Falcon 9 rocket.

Jim Beech currently lives at Patrick Space Force Base with his son who is stationed in the area. Originally from London, Beech has worked as a professional driver for touring music groups.

While he has seen frequent SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, he was looking forward to this new rocket. “I think it’s going to be pretty spectacular,” Beech said ahead of the launch.

For those who stayed up to watch the ascension at 02.03, it was exactly that.

‘I was simply overjoyed’

Timothy Symmons, who works at Blue Origin’s Merritt Island facility on the company’s lunar landers, had previously worked at New Glenn as an engineer until a few months ago. He watched with his wife, Grace, and one-month-old son, Elliott, as the rocket left the launch pad.

“I’m extremely excited to see it launch,” Symmons said. “First, I think I was just overjoyed. And then the second thing that struck me was the brilliant color of the rocket engines. And then third, really, really happy that it cleared the launch pad and continued to perform its primary mission.”

His wife, Grace Symmons, held one-month-old Elliot, who slept fast.

“We’ve been waiting for the launch for a while and it’s special to have our son here,” she said.

Blue Origin’s goal with this first flight was simply to reach orbit, which the rocket succeeded in doing. Had the first stage of the rocket landed, that would have been an added bonus. According to a post on X by Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, the company will try again on the next launch to land the first stage on the Jacklyn landing pad. When successful, this will allow the rocket to be reused, reducing costs.

SpaceX is already successfully landing and recycling its Falcon 9 first stage.

“The capability that New Glenn brings to the industry is extremely valuable,” Symmons said. “Not only will we have SpaceX able to provide low access to put payloads into a variety of orbits – we now officially have another provider that can provide similar services.”

“As they grow and are actually able to compete in terms of output and the number of launches per year, that will be quite a game changer,” Symmons said.

‘Crazy how much of the sky lit up’

Meanwhile, Logan Parish stood with his son. None of them had seen a rocket launch before. They are in Florida on vacation from southern Idaho and just witnessed history.

“I think having a hazy sky like this worked to bring out some of the colors from the background,” Parish said as he looked at the cloudy sky above the now-empty launch pad. “It was crazy how much of the sky lit up. It was kind of amazing to me.”

Eight-year-old Rowan Parish declared the launch “pretty cool.” He commented on the large amount of exhaust left by the powerful rocket – which hovered over the launch pad long after New Glenn took off.

As the night wore on, the rocket’s second stage and the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload reached their target orbit. Well-wishers from around the world continued to congratulate the company on X (formerly Twitter), including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

“Congratulations on reaching orbit on the first attempt! @JeffBezos“, Musk’s post read.

For now, Florida’s Space Coast has a new player in the orbital launch business.

Be sure to follow the FLORIDA TODAY Space Team at FloridaToday.com/Space for the latest from the Space Coast.

Brooke Edwards is a space reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or at X: @brookeofstars.