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 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.
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 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.
Blue Origin has officially announced the launch date and time window for its second New Glenn mission, NG‑2. It is now officially scheduled to lift off no earlier than Sunday, November 9, 2025, from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch window opens at 2:45 PM ET and closes at 5:11 PM ET (19:45–22:11 UTC).
Weather might pose a problem on Sunday, as there is a ~40-50% chance of rain in the forecast. Monday the 10th looks to be the beginning of a cold spell for the Space Coast, as winds will shift to the northwest as a frigid air mass approaches the area. Veteran’s Day will bring a winter-like high of 62ºF, with northerly winds ranging from 10-20 MPH. While none of that is any sort of Launch Mission Execution Forecast, it’s reason able to expect the 45th Weather Squadron to come out with something less than an ideal forecast for this flight.
| Organization | Blue Origin |
| Location | Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA |
| Rocket | New Glenn |
| Pad | Launch Complex 36A |
| Status | Go for Launch |
| Status Info | Current T-0 confirmed by official or reliable sources. |
| Window Opens | Sunday, 11 / 09 / 2025 2:45 PM |
| Window Closes | Sunday, 11 / 09 / 2025 5:11 PM |
| Destination | Mars Orbit |
| Mission Description | Maiden flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn carrying NASA’s twin Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) to study ion and sputtered escape from Mars and the processes that shape the planet’s hybrid magnetosphere and energy/momentum transport from the solar wind. |
As of 10:16 AM Thursday November 6, 2025. Launch assignments and times are subject to change or cancellation at any time. Consult BlueOrigin.com for updates.
If you are interested in a relatively close view of the launch, Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center is offering viewing opportunities from the LC-39 Gantry for Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch this weekend. Tickets are $99 plus the usual entrance and parking fees.
The NG‑2 mission will carry the Rocket Lab-built ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft — a pair of identical satellites bound for Mars. Also aboard is a technology demonstration payload for Viasat, part of NASA’s Communications Services Project.
The New Glenn rocket’s first stage will attempt recovery via landing on the offshore ship Jacklyn, while the upper stage delivers the payload to its Mars-bound trajectory. Jacklyn left Port Canaveral overnight, and is now steaming towards its planned downrange position to await GS-1, New Glenn’s booster.
While Blue Origin has maintained that a successful booster landing remains a tertiary goal for the mission, it is still an important one for the company: recovering the first stage sets the table for refurbishment and reflight, a key part of the economics of the New Glenn program. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp commented yesterday on social media on the landing attempt, saying, “What if we don’t stick the landing? That’s ok. We’ve got several more New Glenn boosters already in production.”
The first two goals are obvious: a successful ascent to orbit for the 320 ft (98 m) tall rocket flying for the second time. Following that, a successful payload deployment for NASA and ViaSat, Blue Origin’s customers for NG-2.
As always, lots of things can and probably will change prior to Sunday in regards to the mission.
As October progresses, Blue Origin has turned up the tempo of its preparations for the next launch of its New Glenn rocket. Plans are converging toward a liftoff sometime between mid-October and mid-November for the second mission of the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket, which will carry NASA’s twin Rocket Lab-built ESCAPADE probes and place them on their way to Mars.
Though the company has not yet committed to a hard launch date, recent public statements suggest the first-stage static fire is likely to occur in the middle of the month, with a launch to follow soon thereafter. All of the pieces are coming together for a second New Glenn flight.
In a post on social media, Blue Origin affirmed that “ESCAPADE is at Astrotech and GS1 [the first stage] is headed to LC-36 in early October,” adding that the “vehicle hotfire mid-month” is the next major activity. Given that today is October 2, “mid-month” is only a couple of weeks away.
That phrasing strongly implies that the full booster test—igniting all seven BE-4 engines while the booster is held on the pad—is expected in mid-October. Assuming a successful test firing of GS1, the entire launch vehicle will then be stacked and returned to LC-36 for its eventual flight to space.
Meanwhile, the second stage of the vehicle has already undergone a dedicated hot-fire test on September 23, a milestone that cleared that portion of the stack for upcoming integration work.
This campaign comes in the wake of New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January 2025, which successfully placed the Blue Ring pathfinder payload into orbit but failed to recover the booster.
After NG-1, Blue Origin and the FAA jointly reviewed propulsion and re-entry performance and identified corrective measures, especially concerning propellant flow and engine re-ignition control. In March, the FAA released its findings and a list of items that were required to be remediated and verified before a second launch.
The FAA already licenses New Glenn Flight 2 under Blue Origin’s existing five-year Part 450 commercial space launch license, issued in December 2024 and valid through at least 2029. No separate license is required for subsequent flights under this framework, provided that Blue Origin meets the changes required after NG-1’s flight and subsequent investigation.
This license authorizes multiple orbital missions from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (LC-36), including reusability attempts for the first stage on an Atlantic barge. It covers Flight 2 following the closure of the Flight 1 mishap investigation in March 2025.
Pretty clearly, business is picking up for Blue Origin. Sooner rather later, skies above the Space Coast are going to turn blue again as NG-2 powers its way to orbit. And may the odds ever be in their favor.
Blue Origin’s CEO, Dave Limp, announced today that the second launch of the company’s New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral will be NET August 15, 2025.
The mission will have detailed objectives that go beyond mere repetition of its maiden voyage, NG-1. Flight 2 will blend hardware validation with customer service mandates and data acquisition goals — a step toward establishing New Glenn as a frequent-operational vehicle in Earth’s orbit and beyond. It has not been explicitly stated that NG-2 will carry NASA’s ESCAPADE Martian satellites or Blue’s own Blue Moon MK-1 lander but those payloads are possibility.
At the center of the NG-2 mission plan is the booster’s recovery. During the January 16 first flight of New Glenn, the seven-engine BE-4-powered first stage demonstrated a nominal ascent, clearing the vehicle to orbital insertion, but it failed to land on its barge deck.
The booster’s descent performance fell short of expectations due to uneven engine tank pressures during a planned restart, and the vehicle was lost during reentry. Blue Origin and the Federal Aviation Administration completed an investigation into the event in March, identifying seven corrective actions tied to propellant management and engine bleed systems to ensure successful recovery in subsequent flights.
For Flight 2, Blue Origin intends to validate these fixes and aim for a controlled return and landing on its seagoing platform. Achieving that objective would significantly reduce launch costs and move New Glenn closer to reusability goals — an explicit part of its operational profile.
A second area of focus for Flight 2 is the rocket’s capacity to carry and service client payloads. External contracts from customers such as Amazon’s Kuiper constellation and NASA’s ESCAPADE mission require demonstrated reliability. New Glenn rocket was given NASA Category 1 Certification after NG-1. This classification signifies that the New Glenn is qualified to launch high-risk tolerance missions (Class D). Class D missions typically involve lower priority payloads with medium to low complexity.
Originally manifested on Flight 1, ESCAPADE was reassigned due to integration delays. NASA’s fiscal 2026 budget text indicates it is targeting Flight 2 for launch readiness in quarter four of fiscal 2025 — that is, July through September 2025. That would align with NG-2.
Equally vital is a robust performance of the second stage, known as GS2. That upper stage planned for NG-2 completed a successful hot-fire test in late April, executed at Blue Origin’s facility at their Cape Canaveral’s LC-36 launch complex. The burn, lasting several minutes, engaged the pair of BE-3U engines in conditions representative of vacuum ignition. Flight 2 will aim to repeat and refine this performance, establishing fidelity of orbital insertion timing, orbital stability, and upper-stage restart logic. Any inconsistencies during prolonged burns could compromise payload delivery, a risk Blue Origin must manage to satisfy future clients.
Additional objectives include flight characteristics during ascent. First-stage performance under full-load ascent needs to be validated post investigation, including thrust vector control, separation dynamics, and second‑stage ignition timing. These aspects conducted within uncrewed mission parameters serve to expand the company’s internal flight data metrics and enable iterative design refinement.
A technical objective of note is Stage 2 restart capability. Flight 1 employed two burns to reach medium earth orbit, with the second occurring about one hour after liftoff. Precise execution of multiple back-to-back burns and control of stage stability across long coast periods will be revisited during Flight 2. Such activity must support more complex orbital insertions or deployments, including geostationary transfer and interplanetary trajectories.
Data gathering is another significant objective for Flight 2. The maiden flight returned telemetry not only from in-flight propulsion and stage performance, but also from the Blue Ring Pathfinder spacecraft, which tested payload-hosting capabilities. Extended duration performance, thermal conditions, avionics interactions, and stage-to-payload stability are all expected to see additional refinement during the second flight. All of these data sets feed directly into Blue Origin’s customer engagement strategy and future flight manifesting. Moreover, the data obtained from the second flight of New Glenn was further inform Blue Origin’s engineers as they refine New Glenn and its operation.
Flight 2 will follow the conclusion of necessary FAA review and re-certification processes. That review probed the booster failure and mandated system updates. Aviation regulators and technical backup teams have signaled that New Glenn is green-lighted to resume flights, provided all identified corrective steps have been applied.
From a strategic perspective, Flight 2 serves as an audition for national security missions in addition to NASA flights. New Glenn received certification for National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2, positioning the rocket for critical Department of Defense and NRO contracts. Demonstrating reliability in payload delivery booster recovery will determine whether New Glenn becomes a fixture in U.S. strategic payload delivery. Booster performance, booster recovery as well as second stage performance and on-orbit reliability will demonstrate the company’s capabilities.
One must remain mindful of real-world variables: the weather at Cape Canaveral, barge positioning in the Atlantic, integration timelines for customer payloads, and operational readiness all influence the date. While the August 15th date is the prime target for the flight, Blue Origin will hold as long as needed to preserve mission integrity. The old adage applies here: “Fly when ready. Don’t fly until you are ready.”
Flight 2, then, is a multifaceted test: a demonstration of recovery, payload delivery, propulsion resilience, and market viability. Beyond the hardware itself, the logistical and regulatory choreography behind the scene also comes under real-world assessment. Each objective supports a broader ambition to match cadence, reliability, and cost-competitiveness with established launch providers.
Should Flight 2 proceed as scripted, Blue Origin expects to build momentum toward the next six to eight missions planned through 2026. Those future missions include dual-launch capabilities, potential crewed flight compatibility, and more specialized interplanetary trajectories. But all of that depends on fixing what didn’t stick in Flight 1 and proving that New Glenn can operate reliably and repeatedly.
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