Blue Origin successfully launches and recovers a reused New Glenn rocket booster for the first time, though the satellite payload reached an off-nominal orbit
CAPE CANAVERAL: Blue Origin successfully launched and recovered a reused booster for its New Glenn rocket for the first time.
The uncrewed mission on Sunday marks a key technical milestone for Jeff Bezos’s space company, boosting its launch cadence potential in its rivalry with SpaceX.
The 98-meter-tall rocket lifted off from Florida carrying a communications satellite for AST SpaceMobile.
Its first-stage booster successfully landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean about nine and a half minutes after liftoff.
Blue Origin later stated the satellite powered on correctly but was placed in “an off-nominal orbit.”
The company said it is assessing the gravity of this deployment error.
This novel recycling approach is more complex than reusing components on its smaller New Shepard suborbital rocket.
The booster used had been refurbished after its previous flight in November, which was Blue Origin’s first successful New Glenn booster recovery.
For this inaugural reuse, the company replaced all of the booster’s engines and made several other modifications.
A prior recovery attempt in January 2025 failed when the booster’s engines did not reignite during descent.
The New Glenn is central to Blue Origin’s ambitions in NASA’s Artemis lunar program.
Both Blue Origin and SpaceX are developing lunar landers for the US space agency.
The United States is intensifying efforts to return astronauts to the Moon by 2028.
This deadline falls before the end of a potential second term for President Donald Trump and matches a target set by Chinese rivals.
