Blue Origin Pushes New Glenn Return to January 2027 and Unveils New Stage and Engine
Chief executive Dave Limp told staff the heavy-lift rocket will not fly again until January, after a May explosion wrecked its Florida launchpad. The same week, the company showed off a new third stage and a more powerful booster engine.
Blue Origin has pushed the return to flight of its New Glenn rocket to January 2027, chief executive Dave Limp told staff in an internal memo, after a May explosion wrecked the company’s only launchpad in Florida. The company had said it still planned to fly again this year.
The Financial Times first reported the memo on Thursday, November 5. Reuters, which saw the memo and spoke to two people familiar with the matter, reported that Limp told employees the company was updating its anticipated launch date to January 2027. No exact date in January has been announced.
A pad rebuilt through a wet summer
The May explosion happened during a ground test, days before the rocket was set to carry Amazon satellites into orbit, and badly damaged the launchpad at Cape Canaveral. Limp said in August that the problem started at the main oxygen valve on one of the rocket’s BE-4 engines, and that existing engines would need retrofitting. In the memo, he said the team had “found and fixed the issue that caused the anomaly,” according to The Register.
New Glenn is 322 feet tall, about 30 stories, and has lifted off three times since its debut in 2025, Reuters reported. Limp said summer weather slowed the rebuild, and the region has also been hit by flash floods in recent days. The company has repaired and restacked the Vehicle Access Tower and restored the launch bridge, he wrote.
New hardware in the same week
The delay came as Blue Origin announced two new pieces of hardware. GS3 is a new third stage for New Glenn, built for missions that include direct injection into geostationary orbit and Earth-escape trajectories. The company said GS3 is already under contract for a cislunar mission with a government customer scheduled to launch in 2028, and that the stage is not required for its lunar lander plans, though it could support sustained operations around the Moon.
The company also unveiled Northstar, a booster engine with half the parts and 30 percent less mass than its BE-4 engine. Blue Origin said Northstar raises thrust from 640,000 to 715,000 pounds-force.
The slip puts pressure on two schedules. Amazon’s Leo satellite internet constellation relies on Blue Origin as a launch provider, and Leo is set to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. The delay also leaves less room before NASA’s planned Artemis III demonstration mission next year, which involves lunar technologies from Blue Origin and SpaceX, The Register noted.
Reporting based on coverage by The Orbit Post, Reuters, the Financial Times, The Register and Engadget.
