Blue Origin has pushed the return to flight of its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket to January 2027, abandoning a target of flying again before the end of this year, after an explosion in May wrecked its only Florida launchpad and summer weather slowed the rebuild. The revised date was set out in an internal memo from chief executive Dave Limp, first reported by the Financial Times on 5 November and seen by Reuters.
New Glenn has been grounded since the May blast, and the slip leaves Blue Origin with less room for error before NASA's Artemis III mission — the crewed lunar landing the rocket's hardware is meant to support — targeted for the summer of 2027. The company has not announced an exact date in January for the return flight.
What the memo said
Limp told staff the team had made strong progress rebuilding Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, but that the schedule had to move. "We're proactively updating our anticipated launch date to January 2027," he wrote, according to The Register, which viewed the memo.
The memo said the launchpad's Vehicle Access Tower has been repaired and restacked and the launch bridge restored, but that poor weather over the summer slowed the reconstruction work. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC the new date is roughly 10 days later than the company's most recent target — a small slip in itself, but the third revision of a return date that has been moving all year.
In June, a month after the explosion, Limp had said Blue Origin still planned "to fly again this year". On 7 October, founder Jeff Bezos narrowed that to a December target during a Fox News interview at Cape Canaveral, and identified Blue Origin's Blue Ring spacecraft as the payload for the mission. That December target is now gone.
Context: New Glenn is Blue Origin's partially reusable heavy-lift rocket — a 98-metre vehicle with seven BE-4 methane engines producing about 3.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. It is the company's bid to compete with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 for large commercial and government payloads, and a key piece of NASA's plan to return astronauts to the Moon.
What happened in May
Just after 9pm on 28 May, Blue Origin commanded ignition of the seven BE-4 engines of a fully stacked New Glenn at Launch Complex 36 during a ground test. The vehicle exploded, extensively damaging the launchpad — the company's only New Glenn launch site. No injuries were reported.
Limp said in August that the problem "originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines" and that existing engines would need retrofitting. The memo this week said the team had "found and fixed the issue that caused the anomaly", without elaborating on what the fix involved.
The explosion capped a difficult year for the programme. New Glenn had flown three times before the accident, with mixed results:
| Date | Mission | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 16 January 2025 | NG-1, Blue Ring Pathfinder | Reached orbit; first-stage booster lost during its landing attempt |
| 13 November 2025 | NG-2, NASA's twin ESCAPADE Mars probes | Probes deployed; booster "Never Tell Me the Odds" landed on the recovery vessel Jacklyn |
| 19 April 2026 | NG-3, AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 | Upper-stage problem left the satellite in too low an orbit; AST later de-orbited it |
| 28 May 2026 | Ground test at Launch Complex 36 | Explosion during engine ignition extensively damaged the launchpad |
| November 2026 | Return to flight | Pushed to January 2027 in Limp memo |
A new engine and a third stage
The delay emerged in the same week Blue Origin unveiled two pieces of new hardware — a sign the company is trying to show the programme is advancing even while its rocket is grounded.
The first is GS3, a third stage for New Glenn designed for missions including direct injection into geostationary orbit and Earth-escape trajectories. Blue Origin said GS3 "is already under contract for a cislunar mission with a government customer scheduled to launch in 2028". The company added that the stage is not required for its lunar lander architecture, although it could support sustained operations around the Moon.
The second is Northstar, a booster engine Blue Origin says has half the parts and 30 percent less mass than its BE-4, while increasing thrust from 640,000 to 715,000 pounds-force. The company has not said when Northstar will fly.
"We're proactively updating our anticipated launch date to January 2027."
The announcements do not change the immediate problem: New Glenn cannot fly until the rebuilt pad is tested, and the company has given no date for that testing to begin.
Why the delay matters
Artemis III. NASA's planned crewed landing on the Moon, targeted for the summer of 2027, relies on Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, which New Glenn is meant to help deliver. As The Register noted, the slip "leaves less breathing room" before that mission. NASA has not said whether the January date affects the Artemis schedule.
Customers are waiting. AST SpaceMobile, one of New Glenn's main customers, has 13 of its BlueBird satellites in orbit and needs roughly 45 for continuous coverage of its satellite-to-phone service. An unconfirmed launch schedule published in October had the company reaching 46 satellites by the end of March 2027 — a plan that depended on New Glenn returning around the turn of the year. Each New Glenn flight can carry up to eight BlueBirds, and AST has meanwhile flown its recent satellites on SpaceX's Falcon 9. AST has said its commercial service is now targeted for the first half of 2027.
The competition is not waiting. While New Glenn has been grounded, SpaceX's Falcon 9 has kept flying at a weekly cadence, and its Starship programme has continued test flights. Blue Origin's pitch to customers has always been a second American heavy-lift option; every month on the ground weakens that pitch.
What is not yet known: Blue Origin has not announced an exact launch date in January, has not said when pad testing will resume, and has not published a full technical account of the May explosion beyond the valve fault identified in August. The March 2027 figure for AST SpaceMobile's constellation comes from an unconfirmed published schedule, not from the company.
Frequently asked questions
Why was New Glenn grounded?
A New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test at Launch Complex 36 in Florida on 28 May 2026, extensively damaging the company's only launchpad for the vehicle. The fault was traced to the main oxygen valve on one of its seven BE-4 engines.
When will New Glenn fly again?
Blue Origin now targets January 2027, according to an internal memo from chief executive Dave Limp. No exact date in January has been announced, and the previous target — December 2026 — was set only a month ago.
What is the GS3 third stage?
GS3 is a new upper stage unveiled the same week as the delay, designed to send payloads directly into geostationary orbit or onto trajectories escaping Earth's gravity. Blue Origin says it is already contracted for a cislunar mission with a government customer in 2028.
Does the delay affect NASA's Moon landing?
Not directly, for now. NASA's Artemis III crewed lunar landing is targeted for the summer of 2027 and uses Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander. But the slip narrows the margin for testing and preparation, and NASA has not commented on whether the January date changes its planning.
What happened to the satellites New Glenn was meant to carry?
AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 was lost in the wrong orbit on New Glenn's third flight in April 2026 and was later de-orbited; the company said it was fully insured. AST has since launched its satellites on SpaceX's Falcon 9 while New Glenn is grounded.
Key takeaways
- Blue Origin has pushed New Glenn's return to flight to January 2027, dropping a December 2026 target set by Jeff Bezos a month ago.
- The delay follows a 28 May explosion during a ground test that extensively damaged the rocket's only launchpad at Cape Canaveral; summer weather slowed the rebuild.
- The fault was traced to a main oxygen valve on a BE-4 engine; Blue Origin says the issue has been found and fixed.
- The same week, the company unveiled the GS3 third stage and the Northstar booster engine — new hardware, but neither flies until the pad is ready.
- The slip narrows the margin before NASA's Artemis III Moon landing in summer 2027 and leaves customers such as AST SpaceMobile waiting on a rocket that has flown three times in two years.
What to watch next
The next signals will be an exact January launch date, the start of pad testing at Launch Complex 36, and confirmation of the Blue Ring payload for the return flight. Any further slip would push New Glenn's comeback into 2027 proper — and put fresh pressure on the Artemis III timeline, which NASA is expected to update in the coming months.
