Many people have asked what pollutants are added to the atmosphere by a rocket launch. I did some research and made a table estimating the effluence of a launch.
How Much Pollution Does A Rocket Launch Create?
Blue Origin, New Glenn NG-3, April 19, 2026
Today’s launch was the first commercial payload for New Glenn, the first time it has reused a booster, and the second time it has successfully landed a booster aboard Blue Origin’s drone ship, Jacklyn. Unfortunately, later in the mission, New Glenn’s second stage failed to deliver the payload into its intended orbit.
While the initial ascent was picture perfect, the end result was not. At roughly T+2h 15m into the mission, Blue Origin reported that the satellite was delivered into an off-nominal orbit.
Blue Origin Announces Plan To Launch Next New Glenn NET Late February
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Blue Origin is picking up the pace in Cape Canaveral. The company announced today that the next flight of New Glenn (NG-3) is scheduled for NET late February. NG-2, New Glenn’s second flight, launched on November 13, 2025 on a wholly successful mission to launch two NASA satellites to Mars. NG-3 will come within 4 months of that.
Blue is planning to use the same New Glenn booster as it did with NG-2 — “Never Tell Me The Odds.” That booster landed on Blue Origin’s recovery ship “Jacklyn” after its debut flight, and Blue Origin engineers must feel confident enough in the refurbishment and flight preparation for NTMTO that the company can schedule a target date for its next flight. This flight will mark the first re-use of a New Glenn booster.
Payload Announcement for NG-3
Blue Origin also announced that NG-3 will carry AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation Block 2 BlueBird satellite to low Earth orbit.
AST SpaceMobile selected Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket in November 2024 to launch satellites for its Bluebird cellular broadband network. The constellation will serve both commercial and government telecommunications markets, providing seamless connectivity as mobile devices transition between ground-based cellular towers and space-based coverage—delivering broadband access anywhere on Earth.
“We’re proud to have AST SpaceMobile as our customer on NG-3,” said Dave Limp, CEO, Blue Origin in a press release announcing the flight timeline. “Our customers need a reliable, cost-effective launch vehicle, and New Glenn is purpose-built to serve their needs.”
Blue Origin Announces A Super-Heavy New Glenn Variant
It has been a big week for Blue Origin, first with the second launch of New Glenn, the successful landing of the first stage. As they were moving the first stage of last week’s New Glenn flight, the company casually made three major announcements today in one press release: a new, supersized New Glenn for megapayloads, ramping up the power output of its BE-4 and BE-3U engine used on the second stage of the current New Glenn, as well as the 9X4. It might be a while for the megarocket to be on the launch pad, but the engine advancements start arriving on the next New Glenn flight, NG-3.
Evolving Quickly
The first major upgrade is a boost in engine performance across both stages. The seven BE 4 engines on the booster will now deliver about 4.5 million pounds of thrust, up from 3.9 million. On the stand, BE 4 has already hit 625,000 pounds of thrust with its current propellant setup and is on track to reach 640,000 later this year. Subcooling the propellant raises the engine’s output well above its previous 550,000 pound level.
The upper stage is getting a similar lift. Its pair of BE 3U engines will move from a planned 320,000 pounds of thrust to roughly 400,000 over the next few flights. BE 3U has already shown 211,658 pounds on the test stand.
These performance gains directly support customers already booked to fly on New Glenn to low Earth orbit, the Moon, and farther than that. Other vehicle updates include a reusable fairing for a higher flight tempo, a redesigned tank that lowers manufacturing cost, and a new thermal protection system that can be reused and cuts turnaround time.
Blue Origin said in their press release today that the improvements and upgrades will be phased into upcoming New Glenn missions beginning with NG-3.
Super-Heavy: The New Glenn 9X4
The next significant step in the evolution of the New Glenn program is a new super-heavy rocket. Called New Glenn 9×4, a nod to the engine layout on each stage, it targets missions that need more lift and higher performance. It can place more than 70 metric tons into low Earth orbit, over 14 metric tons directly into geosynchronous orbit, and more than 20 metric tons on a translunar trajectory. The 9×4 will also carry a wider 8.7 meter fairing.
Both the 9×4 and the current 7×2 version will operate in parallel, giving customers more flexibility across mission types, from mega-constellations to lunar and deep space work to national security needs such as Golden Dome or larger NSSL payloads.
Presumably, the new variant will also be built at Blue Origin’s factory in Exploration Park across from the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center.
No mission or date for the upgraded rocket was given.
Blue Origin, New Glenn, NG-2 First Stage Return
Blue Origin’s New Glenn first stage “Never Tell Me The Odds” made a happy return to Port Canaveral this morning, marking the first time that Blue Origin returned with a New Glenn booster after a successful flight and landing.
Blue Origin’s ‘Jacklyn’ Returns To Port With New Glenn Booster Aboard
Blue Origin’s New Glenn first stage “Never Tell Me The Odds” made a happy return to Port Canaveral this morning, marking the first time that Blue Origin returned with a New Glenn booster after a successful flight and landing.
Hundreds of spectators gathered early this morning along the shoreline and on the docks at Port Canaveral. Many arrived before dawn, cameras and phones in hand, eager to capture the moment when the 188 foot-tall booster appeared on Blue Origin’s landing ship ‘Jacklyn’ under two of ‘Harvey Stone’, Blue’s support ship. According to observers, the mood was electric — cheers, applause and shouts of “welcome home” greeted the vessel as it pulled into berth.
The New Glenn booster previously launched successfully on November 13, carrying NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft toward Mars and achieving the rocket’s first successful booster landing at sea. Built here on Merritt Island, many of the spectators were undoubtedly Blue Origin employees celebrating the return of their handiwork.
Now that the booster is at its home port, it will be transported to Blue Origin’s refurbishment facility, where it will be inspected, refurbished and prepared for another flight. The timing of that flight has not been announced as yet.
This also marked the first time two companies had different boosters on the wharf awaiting return to their respective facilities for refurbishment. That pairing may be eclipsed at some point in the midterm future — Stoke Space and Relativity are also planning to use the Eastern Range for launch operations, and they also plan to reuse boosters in their own right. It’s fair to say this morning was a visible sign of a new era at the Cape, one with frequent launches by multiple providers, with hardware regularly recycled and reused.
Blue Origin, New Glenn, NG-2 ESCAPADE, November 13, 2025
Good things come to those who wait, or so goes the old saying. For Blue Origin and the second flight of New Glenn, the second flight of New Glenn was definitely worth that wait: a flawless liftoff, flight to orbit and a booster safely landed aboard Jacklyn, the company’s landing platform stationed offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. Not a bad day’s work.
New Glenn’s seven BE-4 engines ignited at 3:55:01 PM ET Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and the rocket began its slow climb into space.
Blue Origin Launches And Lands New Glenn On Second Flight
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Good things come to those who wait, or so goes the old saying. For Blue Origin and the second flight of New Glenn, the second flight of New Glenn was definitely worth that wait: a flawless liftoff, flight to orbit and a booster safely landed aboard Jacklyn, the company’s landing platform stationed offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. Not a bad day’s work.
New Glenn’s seven BE-4 engines ignited at 3:55:01 PM ET Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and the rocket began its slow climb into space.
Not since the Saturn V has a rocket so large flown from the Eastern Range without the benefit of solid rocket boosters, and it showed as New Glenn seemed to take its time tearing away the surly bonds of gravity on its way to space. Slow it may have started, but New Glenn didn’t take long to gather speed and start its climb to space in earnest.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Max-Q came at about T+ 01:35, and MECO at T+ 03:05 into the flight. As GS-2, New Glenn’s second stage continued ascent towards orbit, the first stage began a series of maneuvers that culminated in the first stage landing aboard Jacklyn, Blue’s drone ship landing platform at about T +09:15. After the smoke cleared, the result was clear: Blue Origin had landed their 89 feet (57.5 meters) tall booster on only their second try.
New Glenn NG-2 ESCAPADE in flight on November 13. 2025
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville
Meanwhile, at about thirteen minutes into flight, New Glenn achieved its initial orbit and one burn later, at T +33:18 the Rocket Lab built payloads of twin Martian orbiters began deployment.
All in all, it seemed textbook flawless, and even though there were software glitches, ground equipment issues, and other anomalies on the way to liftoff, it’s fair to say that Blue Origin had the day they’d been working for during most of 2025 after the first flight of New Glenn in January. They had an entirely successful mission, and, like NG-1, their engineers gained experience and real-world data in the process. They will undoubtedly put that new knowledge to work, probably before dawn tomorrow as the company gets back to work and starts preparing for its upcoming third New Glenn launch.
“We achieved full mission success today, and I am so proud of the team,” said Dave Limp, CEO, Blue Origin. “It turns out Never Tell Me The Odds had perfect odds—never before in history has a booster this large nailed the landing on the second try. This is just the beginning as we rapidly scale our flight cadence and continue delivering for our customers.”
ESCAPADE Have A Long Path Ahead
Ground controllers established communications with both spacecraft by 10:35 PM ET. The pair of satellites will now travel to a staging orbit near the Sun–Earth L₂ point, roughly a million miles from Earth.
For ESCAPADE twin satellites, the journey is just beginning.
ESCAPADE — Road Trip to Mars (Travel Plan Overview)
| Phase | When | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Launch & Drop-off | Nov 2025 | Twin ESCAPADE probes launch on Blue Origin’s New Glenn from Cape Canaveral. New Glenn places them on a high Earth-proximity trajectory headed toward the Earth–Sun L2 region instead of a direct Mars transfer. |
| 2. Loiter “Kidney-Bean” Orbit | Late 2025 → Late 2026 | Spacecraft enter a long, kidney-bean-shaped orbit near an Earth–Sun Lagrange point. They perform checkouts and space-weather observations while waiting for the next favorable Earth–Mars alignment in late 2026. |
| 3. Earth Return & Trans-Mars Injection | Nov 2026 | As the loiter orbit swings them back by Earth, the probes pass through a low perigee and fire their main engines. This burn harnesses the Oberth effect to efficiently push them onto a Mars-bound trajectory. |
| 4. Cruise to Mars | Late 2026 → Sept 2027 | ESCAPADE follows a ballistic transfer orbit to Mars, with small trajectory-correction maneuvers along the way. Total time from launch to Mars arrival is about 22 months. |
| 5. Mars Arrival & Capture Orbits | ~Sept 2027 → Early 2028 | The probes perform Mars Orbit Insertion into a large, highly elliptical capture orbit. Over the following months, they trim and adjust their orbits into coordinated science configurations around Mars. |
| 6. Main Science Phase | Late Spring 2028 → | In their final orbits, the twin spacecraft make simultaneous measurements from different vantage points to study Mars’ magnetosphere and how the atmosphere escapes into space. |
“The ESCAPADE mission is part of our strategy to understand Mars’ past and present so we can send the first astronauts there safely,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Understanding Martian space weather is a top priority for future missions because it helps us protect systems, robots, and most importantly, humans, in extreme environments.”
The Immediate Future Looks Bright For Blue
Blue Origin said today that it has several vehicles in production and multiple years of orders for New Glenn flights. They added in their press release today that in addition to NASA and Viasat, customers include Amazon’s Project Kuiper (Now Amazon LEO), AST SpaceMobile, and several telecommunications providers, among others.
The mission marked the vehicle’s second National Security Space Launch (NSSL) certification flight as well. Blue Origin is certifying New Glenn with the U.S. Space Force for the NSSL program to provide launch services for high-value military payloads, and today’s flight was another step towards achieving that certification.
Now Blue Origin has to work on cadence: for New Glenn to be a profitable and useful program, it must be able to recycle and relaunch vehicles relatively quickly. As Blue stated, they have more hardware under construction here at Exploration Park on Merritt Island. They also have a returning booster to refurbish, repair, and return to the launch pad. It’s a solid start, and a sign that Blue Origin is starting to fulfill its potential as a true competitor in the commercial launch services marketplace.
Rewatch
Blue Origin, New Glenn, NG-2, Prelaunch
Blue Origin was planning to launch New Glenn and the ESCAPADE mission today from Cape Canaveral, but space weather—a relatively rare issue where heightened aurora and atmospheric phenomenae — created a second delay that has kept the 322-foot-tall rocket on the launch pad at LC-36A for the time being.
Solar Storm Scrubs Second New Glenn Launch Attempt
It’s not often that this happens, but solar activity has forced Blue Origin to scrub today’s launch attempt of New Glenn from Cape Canaveral.
Solar activity has been quite high in the past few days as sunspot 4274 has created coronal mass ejection events this week. Last night, aurorae were visible as far south as Central Florida, and that electrical activity is not good for rockets and payloads. According to NOAA, that activity is set to continue today:
The culprit is sunspot 4274 (circled in the solar disk photo above), which is nearing the solar horizon and will rotate with the sun to its side facing away from Earth. Today, however, is going be a busy one insofar as solar activity, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. That necessitated a launch delay.
When Will Blue Origin Try Again?
As their post on X states, Blue Origin is looking at dates and working with officials at the Eastern Range to determine a new launch date for New Glenn. Space Weather is of course a current concern, but their launch date may be affected by United Launch Alliance’s next attempt to launch Atlas V and the ViaSat-3 mission, currently scheduled for tomorrow night.
That’s where it gets sticky: ULA might also be forced to cancel their launch attempt for the same reason Blue Origin scrubbed today: solar storms affecting Earth’s atmosphere. Forecasters at Spaceweather.com posted today that, “Last night’s severe (G4) geomagnetic storm is subsiding, but the action is not over. Earth’s magnetic field is still reverberating from a double-strike of CMEs on Nov. 11th. A third CME is expected to hit Earth on Nov. 12th, elevating storm levels back to G3/G4.” How long that lasts will determine ULA’s plan and whether they have to push their launch.
Should that happen, there will be some congestion on the Range, and at that point, priorities will need to be assigned. Stay tuned,
Why Does Solar Weather Matter To Rockets?
Solar activity can disrupt the communications and navigation systems that ascending rockets rely on. Radio bursts from solar flares add noise to tracking radars and telemetry links, while geomagnetic storms disturb the ionosphere, degrading GPS accuracy used by guidance and range safety. These events also heat the upper atmosphere, increasing drag and altering ascent conditions, complicating performance predictions.
Launch operators monitor space-weather alerts and compare conditions to launch commit criteria; when space weather indices are elevated, they may delay to keep comms, navigation, and environmental margins within acceptable limits. In other words, it’s electrical activity that can scramble vital communications and control.
Blue Origin and NASA did just that, wisely not taking these risks lightly and choosing to wait for the storms to fade and the atmosphere to calm before launching New Glenn.
As the old saying goes: “It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.