Blue Origin

Blue Origin unveils TeraWave, a 5,408-satellite broadband network across LEO and MEO delivering up to 6 Tbps for enterprise and government customers, with deployment beginning Q4 2027.

After 38 flights, 98 humans flown to space, and more than 200 research payloads, Blue Origin pauses New Shepard flights for no less than two years to redirect resources toward its lunar human flight program.

New Glenn's third flight (April 19) reuses and lands a first-stage booster, but one of two upper-stage BE-3U engines underperforms during the second burn, leaving AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 in too low an orbit. The FAA issues a launch moratorium, grounding New Glenn pending an investigation that is compounded by separate ground-facility damage.

On May 22, 2026 the FAA approves Blue Origin's mishap report and lifts the New Glenn grounding. Blue Origin identifies the root cause as a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line, causing an off-nominal thermal condition before the second BE-3U burn and a thrust shortfall. Nine corrective actions are committed before NG-4.

Blue Origin's first Blue Moon Mark 1 (Endurance) cargo lunar lander completes environmental testing inside Thermal Vacuum Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, with structural and thermal integrity verified ahead of radio-frequency compatibility testing at Lunar Plant 1. Endurance is being prepared for a launch to the lunar south pole later in 2026 on New Glenn.

On May 28, around 9 p.m. EDT, a New Glenn rocket bursts into a fireball during a static fire test at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36 - Blue Origin's only New Glenn pad. The vehicle was being prepared to launch 49 Amazon Leo satellites as soon as June 4; no injuries are reported, but lightning towers and the transporter erector appear damaged, pushing the next New Glenn flight further into the future.

On June 2, 2026 CEO Dave Limp posts that Blue Origin will fly New Glenn again before the end of 2026 despite the May 28 LC-36 explosion, citing better-than-expected pad damage: the propellant farm, water tower, an additional flight-ready booster, and three nearby upper stages all look in good shape. Blue Origin will pivot to an alternative vertical assembly approach rather than wait for a new transporter-erector and rules out skipping straight to the larger 9x4 New Glenn variant.

Reporting in mid-May 2026 (GeekWire, TechCrunch, The Next Web) reveals that, after 26 years funded almost entirely by Jeff Bezos's annual ~$1B Amazon stock sales, Blue Origin is now exploring its first outside investment round. CEO Dave Limp tells staff that scaling to roughly 100 launches per year will require more capital than a single investor can provide. Capstone Partners estimates Blue Origin will spend ~$4.8B in 2026 with cumulative investment approaching $28B, amid a SpaceX IPO push that is reframing investor appetite for the sector.

On May 26, 2026 NASA selected Blue Origin for two Commercial Lunar Payload Services task orders - worth $188M with a $280.4M option period - to deliver the first Lunar Terrain Vehicles to the Moon's south pole using Blue Moon Mark 1 landers launched on New Glenn. NASA is separately funding the rovers themselves: Astrolab's crewed CLV-1 ($219M) and Lunar Outpost's Pegasus ($220M), both LTVs targeted to launch in 2028 under the agency's Moon Base Phase One initiative. Blue Origin has begun work on two additional Blue Moon Mark 1 landers for the deliveries and, per July 2026 reporting, has insulated the lander program from the LC-36 pad-recovery effort by continuing risk-reduction testing on schedule.

On May 28, 2026 - hours before the LC-36 hotfire explosion - the U.S. Space Force awarded Blue Origin its first National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 task order (NRO Task Order-4), directing a National Reconnaissance Office satellite launch from Cape Canaveral in Q4 2027 or Q1 2028. Lane 1 is reserved for missions that can accept greater schedule and performance risk than the military's most critical payloads, giving Blue Origin an entry point into national security launch while New Glenn recovers. A May 29 Space Force press release confirmed it remains a 'committed partner' and that the ground-test explosion does not trigger disqualification under Phase 3 rules.

Through mid-June 2026 Blue Origin begins rebuilding Launch Complex 36 after the May 28 hotfire explosion, with Jeff Bezos and CEO Dave Limp saying around June 17 that recovery is making good progress. The company reports that the propellant tanks and a processing hangar survived the blast and that the damaged main support gantry can be repaired in place, keeping a New Glenn return to flight before the end of 2026 - and a Blue Moon MK1 'Endurance' lunar launch this year - on the table.

On June 30, 2026 Blue Origin outlined a redesigned launch-pad concept of operations for returning New Glenn to flight after the May 28 LC-36 explosion. Rather than replace the destroyed transporter-erector, the company will mate the rocket's stages horizontally in the integration facility, roll the integrated vehicle to the pad, and use a crane to raise it vertical, installing the payload only after the rocket is upright - an approach it says also increases long-term flight cadence. Blue Origin reiterated it aims to return New Glenn to flight by the end of 2026, and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called its response 'almost beyond impressive.'

By early July 2026 Blue Origin said hardware recovery and debris removal at Launch Complex 36 were complete and reconstruction had begun following the May 28 hotfire explosion. Under the hybrid horizontal-integration/crane-erect plan, the company aims to have a rebuilt LC-36A ready by the end of 2026 for New Glenn's return to flight, and expects a second pad, LC-36B, in service by late 2027 to raise long-term launch cadence. Blue Origin reiterated it has insulated the Blue Moon lunar-lander program from the pad-recovery effort so risk-reduction testing continues on schedule.

On July 8, 2026 Blue Origin was reported to have raised about $10 billion at a $130 billion valuation - its first-ever external fundraising round after 26 years funded almost entirely by Jeff Bezos. Coatue Management committed roughly $4 billion and Bezos himself about $2 billion, with other large institutional investors covering the remaining ~$4 billion. The raise turns the company's long-signaled openness to outside capital into a concrete round, coming after the late-May New Glenn hotfire explosion and amid surging investor appetite for space following SpaceX's record IPO. The capital is earmarked for Blue Origin's heavy-lift rockets, lunar landers, and satellite constellations as Limp chases a ~100-launch-per-year cadence.

On July 24, 2026 NASA and Blue Origin announced an agreement to conduct hot fire testing of New Glenn's second stage (GS2) - powered by a pair of BE-3U engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for a combined ~400,000 lbf of vacuum thrust - on the historic B-2 test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, with testing targeted to begin this fall. The move follows the severe LC-36 damage from the May 28, 2026 hotfire explosion; NASA supplies engineers, specialized equipment, and facility modifications to ready the B-2 stand for the hydrogen-fueled stage, framing the partnership as advancing Artemis-related capability while Blue Origin's Cape Canaveral pad recovers.

On February 27, 2026 NASA announces a restructured Artemis architecture: Artemis III becomes a crewed low-Earth-orbit test flight in which Orion docks in turn with prototype human landing systems rather than a lunar landing, and the program's first crewed Moon landing moves to Artemis IV, targeted as soon as early 2028, with Artemis V (a second landing beginning lunar-base construction) as soon as late 2028. NASA leaves open whether Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 or SpaceX's Starship HLS flies the program's first landing, to be decided based on Artemis III performance.

At a June 9, 2026 event at Johnson Space Center, NASA announces the crew for the restructured Artemis III mission, in which an Orion spacecraft will dock in Earth orbit in turn with prototypes of Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 and SpaceX's Starship human landing systems, validating crew transfer and docking ahead of the program's first Moon landing on Artemis IV.

On July 31, 2026 the Air Force Research Laboratory adds $11.7 million to Blue Origin's REGAL (Rocket Experimentation for Global Agile Logistics) contract, growing it from about $1.3 million to roughly $13 million, to define technical and mission requirements for adapting Blue Origin vehicles to point-to-point military cargo delivery. Work is expected to run through October 2027; Anduril, Sierra Space, and Rocket Lab hold parallel REGAL awards.

On August 5, 2026 CEO Dave Limp said hardware recovery and inspection confirmed the May 28 LC-36 hotfire explosion originated at the main oxygen valve on one of the BE-4 engines. Blue Origin is making small modifications to the valve that can be retrofitted to existing engines, with updated hardware ready by the end of August; the fix affects ULA's Vulcan as well, since it also flies the BE-4, and ULA has said it is collaborating with Blue Origin on the investigation. Blue Origin still targets returning New Glenn to flight by year-end 2026.

Following the August 5, 2026 root-cause finding, Blue Origin begins retrofitting the modified BE-4 main oxygen valve into engines already delivered to ULA at its Decatur, Alabama factory and at Cape Canaveral. ULA has been separately grounded since a February 12, 2026 solid-rocket-booster nozzle burn-through on the USSF-87 mission (unrelated to BE-4), and says the BE-4 retrofit work is aligned with its own goal of returning Vulcan to flight before the end of 2026.

On August 13, 2026 Blue Origin said it has begun a global rollout of Quartz, a new ground-station network for satellite communications, tracking and telemetry, with the first three 3.7-meter S-band and X-band antennas installed and tested in Bermuda, New Zealand and Australia as part of a nine-site buildout planned by year-end. The network is built with partner RBC Signals, whose existing Global Ground Station Network will host the new sites and resell unused capacity to other satellite operators, giving Blue Origin a new ground-infrastructure business line alongside its launch, lander and connectivity programs.

On August 14, 2026 Blue Origin said it has begun construction of a second launch pad at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36, renaming the rebuilt existing pad LC-36A (serving the current New Glenn 7x2) and building new LC-36B to host the larger New Glenn 9x4 variant. The buildout includes a new Vertical Integration Facility and, built in partnership with the U.S. government, a Payload Processing Facility supporting both New Glenn variants and other National Security Space Launch providers on the Eastern Range; Blue Origin is sourcing about 2,500 tons of steel to assemble the roughly 700-foot launch tower.

On August 26, 2026 Space Florida's investment committee heard that Blue Origin plans a 140-foot-tall, 125,000-square-foot payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a $160 million capital project expected to create 23 jobs at an average salary of about $115,000. Space Florida management proposed up to $2.5 million in Florida DOT Spaceport Improvement Program matching funds, with the board scheduled to vote in early September, as Blue Origin rebuilds Launch Complex 36 after the May New Glenn pad explosion.

The Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority approved a temporary nine-acre staging-area agreement with Blue Origin along Challenger Avenue at Space Coast Regional Airport, running through June 30, 2027 at $16,880 per month, to accommodate the contractor buildout tied to the Launch Complex 36 rebuild. A pending follow-on agreement would have Blue Origin lease the airport's former terminal building for further property improvements, adding to its existing Merritt Island manufacturing and Cape Canaveral launch footprint.

On August 31, 2026 Blue Origin held a groundbreaking for its new payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station - roughly 120,000 square feet with four payload-processing bays, two encapsulation bays, and four multi-manifest bays, sized to support up to 16 missions a year for both government and commercial customers (other launch providers included). The project traces to a $78.25M Space Force NSSL Space Vehicle Processing award to Blue Origin in October 2025, combining with Blue Origin's own investment for a reported ~$160M total; initial operational capability is targeted for early 2027. This is the same project Space Florida's investment committee reviewed for state matching funds on August 26, 2026 (there described as 125,000 sq ft), now physically under construction alongside the ongoing Launch Complex 36 rebuild.

NASA selects Blue Origin as the provider for its Mars Telecommunications Network, a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum potential value of about $700 million, following a request for proposal issued in May 2026 (Blue Origin beat Rocket Lab for the award). Blue Origin must deliver a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO) to NASA no later than December 31, 2028, with the network expected operational at Mars by 2030. The MTO is built on Blue Origin's Blue Ring in-space mobility platform (hybrid solar-electric/chemical propulsion, roll-out solar arrays) and will carry multiple steerable high-rate links plus a wide-area beam to relay science data, imagery, and navigation and communications support for current and future NASA Mars missions, managed under NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program.

New Glenn launches for the first time from Cape Canaveral on January 16, 2025, reaching orbit and deploying the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload. Booster landing attempt unsuccessful.

NASA awards Blue Origin a CLPS task order with a total potential value of $190 million to deliver the VIPER rover to the Moon's south pole in late 2027 using a Blue Moon Mark 1 lander.

The U.S. Space Force awards Blue Origin a National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 contract with an anticipated value of about $2.386 billion. Blue Origin is projected to receive seven missions starting in order year 2 as it completes eligibility milestones.

On its second flight (NG-2) in November 2025, New Glenn successfully lands its first-stage booster on the drone ship Jacklyn while deploying NASA's ESCAPADE Mars probes - a historic achievement on only the rocket's second attempt.

Blue Origin unveils the New Glenn 9x4 roadmap variant, designed to carry more than 70 metric tons to low Earth orbit with a larger 8.7-meter fairing alongside the existing 7x2 vehicle.

BE-4 engines power ULA's Vulcan Centaur on its inaugural flight in January 2024, the first American-made oxygen-rich staged combustion engine to fly.

NASA selects Blue Origin to develop its Blue Moon human landing system for Artemis V. The contract includes an uncrewed lunar demonstration mission before a crewed Artemis V landing in 2029.

Blue Origin announces Honeybee Robotics will join the company, adding planetary robotics, drills, and mechanisms expertise for lunar surface operations.

Jeff Bezos and three crew members fly to space on New Shepard's first crewed mission (NS-16).

New Shepard becomes the first rocket to fly to space and land vertically for reuse.

Jeff Bezos founds Blue Origin with a vision of enabling millions of people to live and work in space.