Blue Origin Sets New Target for New Glenn Rocket Maiden Voyage

The spacecraft—whose two stages tower 320 feet when stacked, making it one of the largest rockets ever built—is scheduled to make its maiden voyage for the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, which sends the nation’s most valuable and sensitive military satellites into orbit. The FAA earlier this month gave the green light for the mission to proceed.

New Glenn was initially scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday. Choppy waters in the Atlantic Ocean, where Blue Origin will attempt to catch the rocket’s lower stage on a barge, forced the launch to slip to Sunday and again to Monday. But Monday’s launch attempt was scrubbed after ice was discovered on one of the spacecraft’s power units, causing yet another push to Thursday.

New Glenn’s inaugural mission, NG-1, has been a long time coming. The name and design of the rocket were first revealed publicly in 2016. But unlike SpaceX’s Starship—another gargantuan rocket that stands even taller than New Glenn—it has yet to fly.

Like Starship, New Glenn’s booster or lower stage is designed to be reusable. Blue Origin will attempt to catch the NG-1 booster, nicknamed “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,” on a floating platform in the Atlantic after it separates from the expendable upper stage. If successful, it would be just the second time the maneuver, which requires extreme precision, has been pulled off on the first try. SpaceX did so last year with its Super Heavy booster.

The lower stage—powered by seven BE-4 engines each producing nearly 550,000 pounds-force of thrust at sea level—will launch New Glenn’s upper stage to orbit with Blue Origin’s Blue Ring Pathfinder. Blue Ring is a prototype spacecraft designed to host and transport up to 3,000 kilograms of payload, refuel visiting spacecraft, and enable in-space computing and communications. On NG-1, the company hopes to demonstrate its ability to beam communications from space to Earth.

The mission will be the first test for Blue Ring, which is being funded by the Defense Innovation Unit with an eye toward future U.S. Department of Defense missions. It will also be a certification flight for New Glenn, which the Space Force is looking to roll out for NSSL operations as soon as possible.

Even if the mission does not go exactly to plan, putting New Glenn in orbit would give Blue Origin valuable data that could be used to refine the rocket’s design and mission profile for future flights. SpaceX, for example, has made vast improvements with each Starship test mission, and its flight cadence has steadily improved.

“Our key objective…is to reach orbit safely,” Blue Origin said in a post on X on Monday. “Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”

Any significant deviation from the mission profile, however, could prompt an FAA mishap investigation, as was the case with each of Starship’s first three flights. The severity of the mishap would determine the length of the investigation. But New Glenn would remain grounded until it is complete.

A mishap certainly would not be the desired outcome. But given the rocket’s novelty, it would not be unusual. Starship’s debut flight, for example, sent ash and debris flying for miles. The rocket was back in action within about seven months.

An upgraded configuration of Starship, called Block 2, is expected to debut Wednesday evening on the spacecraft’s seventh mission.

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