Blue Origin Reports Limited Launchpad Damage, Plans New Glenn Return Flight by End of 2026

Blue Origin plans to fly its New Glenn rocket again before the end of 2026 after an explosion during testing last week at its Cape Canaveral, Florida site, CEO Dave Limp said Monday. Limp said more of the launchpad’s infrastructure was in “good shape” than expected. A previously flown New Glenn booster and three upper stages at the complex also look good, he said.

“We will fly again before the end of this year,” Limp said. The company has not disclosed the cause of the explosion. The blast was the largest and most visible failure in Blue Origin’s history. The company currently operates only one launchpad capable of supporting New Glenn; a second pad at Cape Canaveral remains in very early stages.

SpaceX returned a Falcon 9 to flight within months after a 2016 launchpad explosion because it already had a second pad nearly ready. Blue Origin does not have that advantage. NASA relies on New Glenn for its planned Artemis lunar missions.

Blue Origin shifted focus to those missions in January when it paused New Shepard space tourism flights for at least two years. New Glenn’s first flight occurred in January 2025. The upper stage reached orbit, but the booster exploded during descent.

The second flight in November placed two Mars-bound spacecraft into orbit and landed the booster on a drone ship. Blue Origin reused that booster on the third flight in April. The upper stage failed, and the AST SpaceMobile satellite payload was lost.

The company was preparing a fourth flight carrying Amazon satellites when the explosion occurred; those satellites had not yet been installed. Limp said Blue Origin will not move directly to a larger New Glenn variant on its return to flight. The company will change how it transports rockets to the pad and how it erects them, moving away from the previous transporter-erector system.

Limp did not detail the new ground-support method.